The research department of Countrywide’s Hamptons International brand says the stamp duty holiday introduced yesterday on homes selling for £500,000 or less is likely to save the typical BTL investor approaching £2,000.

It says only one three per cent of investors buy about the £500,000 threshold, so most will benefit; and investors in London and the South East stand to gain the most in terms of hard cash.  

In the capital, where one in five landlords pay over £500,000 for an investment apartment or house, the average stamp duty bill for each of them will fall by £7,240, or 26 per cent.  

A landlord buying in the North East will see their average stamp duty bill fall to just £280.

“While these measures go some way to aid landlords in the amount of cash they need to find upfront to purchase a buy-to-let property, other tax changes and regulations introduced over the last few years will continue to weigh on the profitability of the sector” says Hamptons research chief Aneisha Beveridge.  

“However it might be enough to lure those investors teetering on the edge of whether to invest, particularly in London and the South.  In May, landlords purchased just four per cent of homes in Great Britain, a record low” she continues.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday, which continues until the end of March, retains the three per cent additional homes SDLT surcharge.