Chancellor Urged to Adjust Stamp Duty: There's No Quick Fix

The Chancellor is receiving yet more calls from within the property industry about what he should do in this year's budget. This time the calls are for what should be done about Stamp Duty.

Nick Hopkinson of Property Portfolio Rescue wants buyers of multiple properties to pay stamp duty on the basis of each individual property, as oppose to on the whole transaction.

"We need to see an end to the unfair treatment of investors who are making multiple property purchases," he said.

"Instead of forcing this group of buyers to pay a levy on their full portfolio, Stamp Duty tax should be payable on an individual property basis, providing investors with a level playing field."

Meanwhile, Nick Leeming, director of property portal Property Finder wants more radical measures, he said:

"With the housing market now yielding so little to the Treasury, this is a golden opportunity to soften the cudgel of this iniquitous tax without affecting the government's overall tax take significantly.

"We don't want another stamp duty holiday announcement, we need a more radical and longstanding move that will actually help tempt people back into the market and increase housing transactions - these are the lifeblood of the market."

Further calls are for the Chancellor to remove to reform the current slab system of thresholds, where higher tax rates strike as certain house price levels are passed.

Of course this is not a new wish. People have been questioned the logic of the threshold system for almost as long as we have been paying stamp duty. See, this article written in 2006 for Money Expert's view on the threshold system of stamp duty.

The fact is, no matter what is done with stamp duty by the chancellor, it is not going to be a miracle cure for the UK housing market. Nor is forcing the state owned lenders to make base rate mortgages available and more accessible.

Everything needs to come together as I have said before. More mortgages are only of significance if there is a massive increase in people looking to buy property, which will only happen when the economy is back on its feet and less people are in fear of their jobs and livelihoods. At this point pressure will grow on sellers and potential sellers to become more realistic and drop their price to what properties are selling for. When they do, completed transactions will increase, and the bottom will come.