Stamp duty holiday is a costly failure

The stamp duty tax break has failed to help first-time buyers, as price surges have “dwarfed” any savings made. Nationwide Building Society said that the rapid rise in house prices showed that the policy had only served to transfer wealth from taxpayers to homeowners. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “The savings from the stamp duty holiday have been dwarfed by the impact of recent house price gains.” The price of the typical home increased by 10.5% or £24,500 to £244,229, on which the stamp duty saving was only £1,900, it calculated. “I would call it a policy mistake,” Andrew Wishart, at Capital Economics, said. “You are transferring wealth to the wealthy at the expense of the exchequer.” The total cost of the tax break has so far been £4.8bn. The Times (£) To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews