For months, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned that the Autumn Budget is likely to be ‘painful’, and that ‘things will get worse before we get better’ for the UK economy.
On October 30 Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her first ever , which is expected to include a number of commitments on housing specifically, as well as measures on national insurance, minimum wage, and fuel duty.
chatted to a property expert about what we can expect, from stamp duty updates to measures on social housing and capital gains tax.
The first is on stamp duty – AKA, the tax paid by the homeowner when purchasing houses, flats and other land and buildings over a certain threshold. At present, no stamp duty is required on anything worth up to £250,000. First-time buyers are exempt up to £425,000.
However, as Marc von Grundherr, Director of Benham and Reeves, tells , the relief is set to end in March 2025, with stamp duty ‘reverting back to previous thresholds, which would see existing homeowners liable on purchases over £125,000.’
The relief on stamp duty was always intended to be temporary, and was first introduced as the Stamp Duty Land Tax (Relief) Bill on October 24, 2022. It was given Royal Assent and passed as an Act on February 8, 2023.
Elsewhere, first-time buyers would be expected to pay the tax on any property or land valued over £300,000 – which is a considerable amount, considering that in London alone the average property value comes in at £688,856, according to statistics from Zoopla. That’s more than £300,000 over the threshold.
But as Marc notes, the price of an average home often falls below the £300,000 limit.
‘The average existing homebuyer would see an additional cost when purchasing over £125,000, and if purchasing over £250,000, they would see the maximum increase of £2,500 in stamp duty charged,’ Marc explains.
‘There have been rumours that the government plans to extend the current relief beyond March of next year, but unfortunately it looks as though this will only apply to first-time buyers.’
It’s not just homeowners that are expected to be impacted by the Budget: there will likely be changes in the world of renting, too.
As Marc explains, we’ve already seen a ‘raft of changes’ proposed through the Renters’ Rights Bill – and so there doesn’t appear to be ‘any direct help’ expected for renters specifically tomorrow.
In its current form, the Bill is expected to eradicate fixed-term tenancies, abolish section 21 evictions, give tenants more rights to request a pet in the property, and make it illegal for both landlords and agents to discriminate against tenants receiving benefits or with children, amongst other things.
Elsewhere, it’s not all positive news for landlords and second homeowners, who are expected to be hit by capital gains tax increases, as well as changes to inheritance tax.
‘The worry for renters is that this could cause more landlords to exit the private rental sector and, in doing so, the supply of quality rental accommodation will decline further. Tenants are already facing fierce competition due to high demand, with this demand and supply imbalance driving rents skywards,’ Marc believes.
‘If landlords are also penalised further with respect to the profitability of their portfolio we could see more of them choose to exit the sector, or they will have to pass on the increase in costs to renters – so it’s ultimately tenants who are going to pay the price.’
And, as per reports in The i, Reeves is set to guarantee £500 million in funding towards social housing, which would guarantee the construction of up to 5,000 affordable homes.
The government is expected to commit to a ‘consultation on a new long-term social housing rent settlement,’ as Reeves had previously noted that Britain’s housing crisis had ‘put the brakes on economic growth.’
According to the Chancellor, Labour is also committed to ‘rebuilding Britain by ramping up housebuilding.’
There are more than 323,000 households currently on waiting lists for social housing in the capital alone, according to Centre for London, higher than any other region in England.
East London has the highest number of households on the waiting lists at over 100,000 across its 10 boroughs, compared to North and South London, which both have under 50,000.
What’s more, those on the list can expect to wait between 844 days (which is 2 years and 3 months) for a one-bedroom property. And the time gets worse for a family home with four or more bedrooms, reaching a whopping 2,304 days (or 6 years and 3 months).
Across the UK, Gov UK figures show that there were 1.21 million households waiting for social housing in March 2022, marking an increase of 2% (from 1.19 million) between 2020 and 2021.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.