Tax holiday for homebuyers in Wales

The Welsh Government has introduced a temporary tax break for homebuyers in Wales. People will not pay tax on houses priced up to a threshold of £250,000 from Monday 27th July until 31st March 2021. The WG Finance Minister, Rebeca Evans said that this would release around 80% of homebuyers from liability to the main rates of land transaction tax, averaging a reduction of £2,450 per transaction.

The changes reflect the difference in average house prices in Wales, which are considerably lower than in England where the threshold was last week increased to £500,000.

Robert Evans, Associate Director with Development Land at Cooke & Arkwright said, “We are glad to see the Welsh Government take this move in light of last week’s announcement by the Chancellor, albeit this is a package more relevant to Wales, as you would expect.                                                                                                                                                

“Hopefully it will provide a stimulus to the housing market and help to drive the progress of large housing projects such as our scheme at Plasdŵr.  House sales are essential to give developers the confidence to push on and the development of new housing will be key to the economic recovery.”

In Wales, the tax reduction will not apply to purchases on additional properties, including buy-to-let and second homes.