If I buy a property for the purpose of letting it, but I have no other property, do I have to pay the extra stamp duty?
What if the only property I buy is intended as a buy to let?
What if I buy a property and don’t live in it?
What if I buy my first property but it’s not my main residence?
In this scenario we are looking at someone who is buying a property, which will be the only property that they own. They do not have to live in that property and in fact they might be buying it as a buy to let investment.
In this case you may ask whether or not you need to pay the extra stamp duty on the purchase of that property.
Well the simple answer in this situation is no. If the property that you are buying is going to be the only property that you own at the end of the day then you do not have to pay the extra stamp duty of 3%. You will only need to pay the standard stamp duty rates.
This is good news for example for people who are provided with a place to live with their job, but who want to invest their money in a property that perhaps they might want to live in at a later date. The policy helps people who don’t need their own property right now but don’t want to miss out on investing in a property before prices go up to a level that is just not affordable for them any more.
Different Circumstances
Obviously there may be many different circumstances that may be applicable but the government have stated clearly that if you only own one property at the end of the day when you purchase that property then you will not be subject to the extra stamp duty, so it does not matter what you do with that property.
Obviously the issue may come up that you subsequently want to buy a property to live in and you already own this buy to let property, then you will be subject to the extra 3% charge.
If you want to work out how much stamp duty is due on a property purchase then you can check out our stamp duty calculator which gives figures for standard purchase rates as well as second property purchase rates.