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UK Budget 2017: Stamp duty announcement causes spike in Foxtons' share prices

Foxtons: The share prices spiked following the Budget speech: AFP/Getty Images
Foxtons: The share prices spiked following the Budget speech: AFP/Getty Images

Foxtons saw a spike in its share prices after the Chancellor unveiled plans to scrap stamp duty for first time buyers.

In his Budget speech, Philip Hammond announced he would be abolishing stamp duty for new buyers purchasing properties up to £300,000.

The announcement was welcome news to scores of young buyers and many in the property industry – including UK sales and lettings company Foxtons.

The value of the estate agency’s shares rocketed – soaring from 69.25 pence to 71.25 pence in just ten minutes.

It then temporality dropped before shooting even higher to 71.75 pence.

Spike: The share prices soared following the announcement
Spike: The share prices soared following the announcement

The spike came after a day of steady increase for the company’s shares as details of the Budget emerged.

The stamp duty policy was part of the Chancellor’s plan to tackle the UK's housing crisis at the centre of his Budget.

In properties worth up to £500,000, the measure will still apply to the first £300,000, meaning 95 per cent of first-time buyers will see a cut in the amount of stamp duty, with 80 per cent paying none at all.

The cut will come into force immediately, Mr Hammond said, as he set out plans to build 300,000 extra new homes a year by the mid-2020s.

"This is our plan to deliver on the pledge we have made to the next generation that the dream of home ownership will become a reality in this country once again," Mr Hammond said.

Founder of online estate agency eMoov.co.uk, Russell Quirk, slammed the “well-worn” promise to build more homes as “little more than the annual dose of rhetoric and empty announcements of bold plans” and accused the stamp duty cut of being a “cynical electoral bribe”.

He said the policy was “the only real sign of good intent” in the budget, and suggested it could “help reignite the property market momentarily”.

But added: “Some may say [it] acts as yet another diversion from the elephant in the room of a continued failure to build a meaningful number of affordable homes. Indeed a cynical electoral bribe."