Extra Stamp Duty on Second Home

On 25th November 2015, UK government announced a 3% SDLT supplement which came in to effect from 01st April 2016. If the buyer owns or partly owns two or more properties at the end of the day in which the transaction is completed (may be extended to a 14 day period), an additional 3% stamp duty will be payable on entire value of the property. The following four scenarios are exempted from the additional charge: property purchased is a replacement for main residence, the new property is valued less than £40,000, the property purchased is not entirely a residential or the property purchases is a part of a bulk purchase of 15 or more properties. Contracts exchanged before the announcement date but transactions completed after 31 March 16 are not affected by this change.