Legal News

The previous year at this time the number of houses which were sold for more than £2million in March was 205 but has dropped to 124, the Land Registry said.

This is seen in the context of stamp duty hike on properties which are worth more than £2million resulting in the sales of high end houses having plunged by 40 percent.
Towards the end of March a 7% stamp duty rate was imposed on homes in this bracket causing estate agents to warn that some property chains would crumble as a result.
Elsewhere, the Land Registry said average house prices in May in England and Wales increased 0.5 per cent month-on-month to £161,677.
House prices inched ahead by 0.4 per cent annually, with only three regions showing a growth in property values in London, the South East and the East.
The report showed London prices leaping to 7.7 per cent annually, but the big gap between the North and South has widened with prices falling 3.9 per cent in Yorkshire and Humber, 3.5 per cent in the North East and 2.8 per cent in the North West.
The latest figures available show that during March 2012, the number of completed house sales in England and Wales increased by 25 per cent to 58,609 compared with 46,742 in March 2011.
The capital also experienced the greatest monthly rise, an increase of 2.6 per cent. However the sale of £2million properties also took a tumble in London, dropping 40 per cent from 162 last year to 98 in March this year.
London homes had been a vital market to maintain the average prices up even during the weak market elsewhere in the country.
Estate agents warned that the Chancellor risked ‘killing the goose that lays the golden egg’ when he unveiled the 7 per cent rate on £2million properties.
But George Osborne defended the move and said it was ‘fair when money is tight, and many families could do with help, that those buying the most expensive homes contribute more.
Residential stamp duty peaked at £6.7billion in 2007/8, but has also been below £3billion on two occasions over the past decade, according to figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The OBR anticipates stamp duty progressively climbing to £8.5billion by 2016-17, but this projection assumes a sharp recovery in the number of people purchasing property.