The stamp duty yield for the first quarter of 2000 was £197 million. Some £56.7 million of this yield relates to stamp duty on housing.
The stamp duty rates for all residential property were reduced significantly in the Finance (No 2) Act, 1998. This reduction formed part of a package of measures introduced in response to the first Bacon report on housing and were aimed at addressing the rapid increase in house prices in recent years. These measures also included a withdrawal of the stamp duty exemption on new houses for non-owner occupiers which was designed to reduce the number of investors in the market and free up the supply side.
There is no stamp duty on the sale of new residential property where the purchaser is an owner-occupier and the house is not greater than 125 square metres. If a new house is more than 125 square metres, stamp duty is charged only on the site cost or a quarter of the value of the house, whichever is the greater.