LONDON: UK property-tax system lowered costs for prospective buyers. Average prices increased 1.4 percent from December to 273,275 ($414,000), snapping two months of declines, according to a property website values sought in London rose 0.9 percent to 566,404 pounds.
A change to stamp duty, a tax on home buying, was among the giveaways from Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne last month as his Conservative Party courts voters before May’s general election. A lack of supply is also supporting prices, with stocks of property for sale down 10 percent from a year earlier, website said.
The tax change may be “the spur for people making New Year resolutions to get on with moving,” Rightmove Director Miles Shipside said. “We are only a few days into the year and it remains to be seen whether this initial flurry is sustained.”
Prices across England and Wales rose 8.2 percent from a year earlier. Seven of 10 regions tracked by Rightmove showed increases, led by a 3 percent jump in the southwest.
