Government attacks CML FTB stats
Thursday, October 26th, 2006The government has said that the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has used ‘questionable’ data in its first time buyer statistics, reports MoneyMarketing. According to the Treasury, many of those classed as first time buyers by the CML are not actually first time buyers. Instead, many are people returning to home buying after renting for a short period, going abroad or staying with family and friends after a divorce. Many of the people listed by the CML, says the Treasury, are buying second homes.
MoneyMarketing previously reported that the CML defined a first time buyer as anyone buying a property but not selling one at the same time. The CML has just published research which shows tremendous differences in the level of stamp duty paid by first time buyers, with many, especially in London, falling into the 3 per cent band.
Meanwhile, the Treasury says it does not recognise the CML’s data on first time buyers as its definition of first time buyers is questionable. A spokesman says: ‘The fact is that as a result of threshold increases made by the Chancellor less than half of first time buyers pay stamp duty.’
According to MoneyMarketing the CML has responded as follows: ‘The Treasury chooses to ignore the key point we were trying to make. All home-buyers, whether they are new entrants, returners or existing owner-occupiers, are paying increasing amounts of stamp duty. If the Treasury doesn’t recognise our data, what is it using? Ours is exactly the same as the FSA’s and uses exactly the same definition as the FSA.’
