New Luxury 15% Stamp Duty Tax on London's Highend Property Market Causing Chaos

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According to a written state by London-based real estate firm Douglas & Gordon, the visible effects the new luxury property stamp duty increase is having on the London luxury property sector are not good.

Ed Mead, director at Douglas & Gordon told World Property Channel this past week, "It has been less than 7 hours since the chancellor delivered the budget and the prime central London property market has gone into meltdown. I don't think anyone has quite clicked that many of the properties at this price level are bought by a company through personal choice rather than a way to avoid stamp duty taxation. Most property companies buy for development through companies and they're pulling out too.

"There have been fall-throughs seen across London by several estate agents with company buyers unwilling to pay this absurd 15% Tax.  A few buyers have tried to off-set this additional cost by decreasing their sales price by as much as 10% which has caused vendors to pull out of a sale. The repercussions of these fall-throughs has caused widespread chaos, with property chains being broken and deals that have only a few days to complete falling through.

"Why are we slamming doors in the faces of international buyers who have built London into what it is spending billions whilst here? The main source of aggro was the avoidance SDLT by the use of overseas company special purpose vehicles, but this budget does nothing to address that as it can still go on. Instead a sledgehammer has been used to crack a nut in the form of UK company purchases being used in SDLT mitigation schemes. They might but at what cost."

"Many sellers will not now sell at over £2m as they can't afford to move continuing supply decline and pushing prices further. This falling away of volumes in a very important market that uniquely is driven from the top down may well be catastrophic."