The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has just announced in his first budget speech on 11 March 2020, that there will be a surcharge on property purchases for overseas buyers buying property in the UK.
The surcharge was stated to be 2% on top of the standard rates, and this would take effect from April 2021.
This change to stamp duty for foreign purchasers had been anticipated in the market so did not come as a surprise.
This is the excerpt from the Budget report:
Non-UK resident Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) surcharge – The government will introduce a 2% SDLT surcharge on non-UK residents purchasing residential property in England and Northern Ireland from 1 April 2021. This will help to control house price inflation and to support UK residents to get onto and move up the housing ladder. The money raised from the surcharge will be used to help address rough sleeping.
More information will follow when we have it.