Northerners 'benefited most from stamp duty break'

Date:Thursday 31st December 2009
Author: Susanna Kavka

Mortgage lenders in the north benefited the most from the stamp duty holiday, according to the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

In the last year, three quarters of all house purchases in the north of the UK escaped paying any of the tax, as their price has fell below the increased threshold of £175,000.

Before the exemptions, less than half of the homes in the northern and Yorkshire and Humberside areas did not have the tax levied on them.

By comparison, in London just six per cent of homes bought this year did not come with the additional one per cent tax rate, although transactions in the capital account for 13 per cent of all UK house purchases.

CML senior statistician James Tatch said: "We may see some surge in activity at the end of the year as borrowers rush to beat the deadline on the stamp duty concession before it ends."

Earlier this month, the CML reported that mortgage lending fell by ten per cent in November from the previous month.