There is no doubt that a lot was announced in the budget and I could say plenty about everything but this is a mortgage site so let's just stick to property and how it's been impacted today.

Capital Gains Tax

Let's start on a positive. Well, let's just say no change is a positive. CGT on the sale of residential property has not changed. It stayed at 18% and 24%, respectively. I'm kind of glad about that. Personally, I have a property to sell soon!

Basic rate taxpayers pay 18%, and everyone else above that pays 24%.

There was widespread suspicion that this would be increased, so we will still consider this positive.

Stamp Duty

There is currently a 2% surcharge on additional property with Stamp Duty. That will increase to 5% from tomorrow, 31.10.2024.  So, if you already own a home considered your main residence, any other property you buy will be charged much more.

Interestingly, if you're completing on a property tomorrow, you must immediately find that extra 3%.

Right To Buy

When purchasing a council property, you can benefit from a discount depending on how long you have lived there.  Currently, you can benefit from up to a 70% discount.

This will reduce to a maximum of 25%.

Intended to preserve housing stock.  This is already the case in Scotland, but you cannot purchase council property there at all now.

Inheritance Tax

This will remain frozen for a further two years. It was frozen until 2028, so today's announcement extends that to 2030.

The first £325,000 of any estate is tax-free, well, inheritance tax-free. This rises to £500,000 if the estate includes a residential property being passed to a direct descendant. It increases to £1m if the allowance is passed to a surviving spouse.

That's pretty much it!

Other announcements related to investment in affordable housing and building new homes.  These were already known so nothing new.

There were some missed opportunities, though. One thing that would have helped older homeowners downsize and free up larger properties would have been to incentivize those over 65 to downsize by removing or significantly reducing stamp duty.

I thought it would be much worse than it turned out, so I will take that. However, I do feel that Labour intended it to be a lot worse but was advised to pull back or commit political suicide. Who knows what the future may hold, given their spending plans!