Alliance & Leicester Mortgages calls to stamp out duty

Alliance & Leicester Mortgages is calling on the Chancellor to scrap stamp duty tax for first time buyers.

New research shows that first timers have just an eight per cent chance of buying a property under £60,000, and thereby not getting hit for stamp duty

Ten years ago there was over a one in two chance.

"Stamp duty was never intended to be a prohibitive tax and with first time buyer activity at a 20 year low, this group of people could do with a helping hand," said Stephen Leonard, the director of mortgages, savings & investment products at Alliance & Leicester.

Last year just 99,234 properties in the whole of England and Wales sold for less than the £60,000 stamp duty threshold.

On top of these figures, only six per cent of typical first time buyer properties, such as flats and maisonettes, sold for under £60,000 last year.

This compares to nearly three quarters of them being sold under the stamp duty threshold ten years ago.

Mr Leonard added: "The Chancellor has a great opportunity to alleviate the strain on first time buyers by exempting them from stamp duty in this year's Budget."

It is particularly bad in London where there has been a 99.7 per cent drop in the number of houses available under £60,000.

Only 144 properties sold under £60,000 last year