London FTBs face 'double penalty' compared to rest of UK

According to the latest report from website How to Home Buy, first time buyers in London suffer a double penalty when compared to FTBs in the rest of the UK.

Related topics:  Mortgages
Amy Loddington
9th January 2014
Mortgages

The London average FTB property value is £276,116 - 85% higher than the UK average, and therefore they pay an average Stamp Duty of £8,283, which is 5.5 times higher than the UK average.

Whilst the increased ability to access mortgage finance with only a 5% deposit is a positive for all first time buyers, this appears not to have helped the London buyer.

The report says it must be assumed that a 5% deposit in London is still so high as to continue to be inhibitory for buyers wanting to geton the property ladder
 

Q4 2014 data from  Nationwide shows that the first time buyer price in London is 7.5x earnings, now higher than the figure of 7.2x seen in Q3 2007 - only 5% of Help to Buy part 1 completions were in London, suggesting that the scheme is not geared towards buyers in the capital.

Alongisde this, the Stamp Duty penalty suffered by London first time buyers is exacerbated by two factors; the premium price of property  in the country’s capital and the ratchet in rate to 3% when property  values cross the £250,000 threshold

If London first time buyers were only required to pay Stamp Duty at the 1% level, the average saving would  be over £5,500
 

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