London's house prices exceed £300,000
News Category: Industry News
Published: 24-Jul-2007
House prices in London and the south-east of the UK continued to rise, reaching record levels in the second quarter of 2007, a new report suggests.
According to data published by Halifax, the typical house in Greater London now costs £313,122.
Equally, the average value of a house in the south-east rose in the second quarter of the year to £259,904.
These prices mean that landlords looking to buy property in these areas will have to pay high levels of stamp duty. In fact, a landlord buying a south-eastern property now would have to pay £5,302 more in stamp duty than they would have if they had bought in the first three months of the year.
Tim Crawford, group economist at Halifax, explained that homebuyers and landlords looking to buy in London and the south-east face "a rising tax burden due to the government's continuing failure to increase the inheritance tax and stamp duty thresholds in line with house price inflation".
He added: "We call on the government to raise the stamp duty thresholds and the inheritance tax threshold in line with past increases in house prices over the past decade.
"We believe the government also should commit to index link all property-related tax thresholds to house price inflation in the future."
