Normally when you buy a home you pay a tax called Stamp Duty. It's usually around 1% of the property's value but can be more or less depending on your circumstances.
When COVID hit in 2020 the Government were worried that the housing market was going to crash, so they removed the tax and started the so-called "Stamp Duty Holiday". The idea was to make it slightly cheaper for people to buy property so that they'd keep buying, and also give them an incentive to buy now rather than putting off their plans for the future.
However, house prices then shot up to all-time highs which left many asking whether or not a stamp duty holiday was ever needed in the first place.
It turned into a bit of a mess but has attracted a lot of headlines and research - which you can browse through below.
FEATURED ARTICLE
What's been happening with Stamp Duty over the last year or two, and why the constant headlines? Here's a super-short article to bring you up to speed.
Buying property is a pricey thing to do at the best of times, and having to pay Stamp Duty too certainly doesn't help! But what is Stamp Duty? And how much is it? When do you pay it, and how do you pay it? Is there any way to avoid paying stamp duty? We've covered all that for you here in our handy guide. Read on for more.