NAEA calls for property tax reform

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 11:13:43 GMT

The government must reform the stamp duty property tax to help encourage more people to buy a new house, it has been suggested.

According to National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) chief executive Peter Bolton King, the levy represents "a tax on aspiration".

His comments come in the wake of NAEA research which shows that an increasing number of Britons no longer want to own a property.

In Cardiff, for instance, some 30 per cent of adults do not want to get a mortgage and buy a property.

A total of 27.7 per cent of Manchester residents think the same, while a quarter of people in both Brighton and Belfast also do not want to buy a residence they can call their own.

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, said: "The recession has left many people feeling that they cannot get onto the property ladder."

And despite suggesting earlier this year that confidence had returned to the housing market, he added that the prime minister Gordon Brown and chancellor Alistair Darling need to create "a level playing field" for house hunters by changing stamp duty rules.


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