Rise in housing tax 'to prevent future booms' proposed

Posted: 03 Dec 2009 10:29:59 GMT

Implementing tax rises has been proposed to prevent future housing booms.

During a speech on Tuesday, Adam Posen, an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee, suggested that title fees, stamp duty, capital gains and transfer taxes should be varied over time in line with price developments in the market.

However, the proposals have been criticised by Nigel Ellis, senior partner at estate agents Pricket and Ellis as "the usual economist looking for easy answers".

He goes on to say that if Mr Posen proposes to not increase taxes, but use them to stabilise or regulate the market, then it will never be done at the right time.

Mr Ellis believes that the government will not bring in any radical or controversial measures in the pre-budget report next week.

He states that if the government but up taxes then it is unlikely that they will come down again, so the proposal is "a bit of a non-starter".

According to FindaProperty, if the current stamp duty threshold was increased to £250,000, then 61 per cent of all UK properties currently on the market would be exempt from the tax.

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