Buy to Let landlords determined to complete purchases before a new tax surcharge comes into effect in April are piling into the UK housing market, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
The fresh data lends weight to the concerns of many economists that chancellor George Osborne’s decision to leave a window before the new tax rate applies risks distorting the housing market this year.
From the spring, buy-to-let investors and second homeowners will have to pay an additional 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge on purchases compared with residential buyers.
The issue with creating a deadline in traditionally the busiest quarter of the year is that we will see a price spike for the year and we would urge investors to apply caution and remember that buying the right property is more important than trying to avoid the 3% surcharge.
