Property Investor Today:
Cut stamp duty to free up mobility, says report
11 August 2017
Current stamp duty rates are deterring older buyers from downsizing and therefore freeing up homes for those further down the housing ladder, but the research from the London School of Economics and the VATT Institute for Economic Research, says that moving levels would increase by over a quarter if the tax was scrapped. Professor Christian Hilber, co-author of the report, commented: “The key message is that stamp duty hampers mobility significantly, it create a mismatch and distortions in the housing market. Our analysis suggests that mobility would be 27% higher if stamp duty was abolished or replaced with an annual tax on the value of property.
Related publications
‘Transfer Taxes and Household Mobility: Distortion on the Housing or Labor Market?’, Christian A.L. Hilber and Teemu Lyytikäinen, SERC Discussion Paper No.216, June 2017
http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/textonly/SERC/publications/download/sercdp0216.pdf