During today’s (6th March) Spring Budget, chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt has announced plans to abolish the furnished holiday lettings (FHL) tax regime, starting from 6th April 2025.
This decision aims to eliminate the tax advantage for landlords who let short-term furnished holiday properties over those who let residential properties to longer-term tenants.
The chancellor also announced the government will scrap the stamp duty land tax relief regime for multiple dwellings in England and Northern Ireland from 1st June 2024.
Property transactions with contracts that were exchanged on or before 6th March 2024 will continue to benefit from the relief regardless of when they complete, as will any other purchases that are completed before 1st June 2024.
In addition, from today, registered providers of social housing in England and Northern Ireland will not be liable for stamp duty land tax when purchasing property with a public subsidy.
Public bodies will also be exempt from the 15% anti-avoidance rate of SDLT.
Hunt also cut the higher rate of capital gains tax for residential property disposals from 28% to 24%, to encourage landlords and second homeowners to sell their properties and make more dwellings available for purchase to first-time buyers.
