Budget 2012: Home danger

ESTATE agents have warned that a new 7 per cent rate of stamp duty on homes worth £2 million or more could damage the housing market.

Chancellor George Osborne also imposed a stamp duty rate of 15 per cent on houses of the same value bought through holding companies.

The policy will hit London hardest and is expected to raise just £800,000 in Scotland.

Announcing the crackdown on stamp duty tax avoidance, Mr Osborne warned: “I will not hesitate to move swiftly, without notice and retrospectively if inappropriate ways around these new rules are found.”

Estate agents said the Chancellor risked “killing the goose that lays the golden egg” at a time when much of the housing market remains flat elsewhere.

Peter Rollings, chief executive of estate agent Marsh and Parsons, said: “Not only will this policy disproportionately target London, where house prices are in a league of their own, it risks killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

“With the property market still far from healthy, we need to see the government supporting activity at all levels, rather adding yet another tax burden.”