Martin Lewis urges UK households to act now and escape £11,250 charge

Martin Lewis urges UK households to act now and escape £11,250 charge

by · Birmingham Live

Martin Lewis has urged first-time buyers to "act now" to avoid a potential £11,000 bill. The ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show star spoke out on his live Budget Special on October 31 (Thursday night) ahead of huge hikes in Stamp Duty Tax charges.

Martin said: “If you’re looking to buy now, you want to get it done before next April as it is going to get a lot more expensive.” He explained: "In England and Northern Ireland, the Stamp Duty thresholds are to be cut on April 1, 2025 So why wasn't it in the speech?

"Well, this is because the last government increased the threshold at which you pay Stamp Duty, and it was planned to come down if the Chancellor didn't decide to continue the old thresholds. So in reality, Stamp Duty thresholds are coming down."

READ MORE UK households will wake up to £11,250 bill after stamp duty rule change

He explained: "Now, what that means in practice is for someone buying a property worth £425,000, you're going to be paying an extra £6,250 in Stamp Duty from next April than you are right now. For someone buying a property over £625,000, you're going to be paying an extra £11,250 pounds more in Stamp Duty."

He added: "I know it's not what you want to hear, but you need to understand what's going to happen." The head of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, slammed the increase in stamp duty and says the rise would end up hurting renters.

He said, on X, formerly Twitter: “In order to ultimately keep people in much needed and affordable private rented homes, we continue to stress the importance of support for the private rented sector including incentives for landlords to invest rather than continuing to penalise them through regulatory bombardment and increasing costs.”

“I have long said stamp duty is among our worst taxes. So what do we have? An increase for those buying second properties. You might think fine: a tax on rich people and landlords. But those looking to rent will pay part of the cost as fewer properties made available.”