Struan Douglas

Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) threshold was to be raised from £145,000 to £250,000, but she has not said when the change would come into effect.

The move shadows an announcement on Wednesday by Chancellor Rishi Sunak of a cut in the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for England and Northern Ireland to prevent a slump in the property market following the coronavirus lockdown, raising the threshold from £125,000 to £500,000. That came into effect immediately unlike what has been announced here.

Struan Douglas, managing director of Edinburgh-based solicitors and estate agent Purdie & Co, said it was “extremely disappointing to introduce such a change in Scotland without a timescale, creating dangerous uncertainty”.

He said: “Whilst ultimately of benefit to buyers there are deep concerns in the industry about the impact this will have on market activity in the short term. The property market in Scotland has barely re-opened and the last thing we need is this announcement which is likely to put the brakes on a large number of transactions which were only allowed to restart last week- many of which where the moves were on hold for months during lockdown.

“Announcing a cut in tax at some unspecified point in the future can do nothing but invite potential buyers to delay home purchases and this will surely lead to the market stalling further after a three-month spell with little activity. Any buyers in their right mind who were not already bound to complete under concluded missives and who were due to complete in coming weeks will now try to hold off doing so if they stand to benefit by up to £2,100- is that fair on the sellers who have been waiting for months for the sale to happen?

“Surely with some forward planning ahead of the likely announcement by Rishi Sunak this could have been prevented this. In any case, making an announcement of this nature at this vital time for the property market lacked foresight, particularly when there had been warnings to Rishi Sunak before his announcement that it would be detrimental to the market if not brought in immediately.”

The effect of the change is that residential property transactions where the purchase price is under £250,000 and to which the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) does not apply, will attract no LBTT. For transactions where the purchase price is above £250,000, the rates and thresholds that usually apply remain unchanged.

Where the ADS does apply, the change to the starting threshold will also apply to such transactions. This means that a residential property transaction that is liable to the ADS will not pay the standard rates of LBTT on the first £250,000 of the purchase; however, the ADS will remain payable at four per cent of the total purchase price.

Ms Forbes also confirmed that the Scottish government would invest an additional £50 million into the First Home Fund to provide additional support to first time buyers at this time.