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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/buy-to-let/12019894/Buy-to-let-stampede-ahead-of-stamp-duty-hikes.html

Hola amigos, newbie here. Been following HPC but never really had much to contribute, guess now I do So after a long and painful search we finally found something and made a conditional offer on a new development outside London in Zone 7, the condition being developer SDLT contribution. The offer was readily accepted and so we began the proceedings. Everything was going smoothly until Mr. Hammond struck last week in the budget, seemingly for FTBs but clearly in favour of his builder and bank pals. Our distraught developer called us back, thru the (his?) EA, to let us know that his SDLT contribution would now be £5k less since we have "room for £5k" and should be generous enough to let him on it. Now we really liked the property and were about 80% thru with the buying process having spent money upfront on solicitors, surveryors valuation etc. The prospect of losing the property at this stage seemed scary. Nevertheless, we asked for a bit of time. Called the EA and offered to split, got a "NO" straight back. So we bluffed that we might not go ahead, only to be called and told back that developer has a higher offer on the table, your move. OK so we'd been looking forward to buying a home while they've been trying to get higher offers using ours as a benchmark. Borderline legal but 100% immoral. Granted we liked the property but on second thoughts, it is not even in London, way overpriced for what it is and we probably offered too much. Inflation is on the up, wage increments minimal, £ on the decline, interest rates - should be a lot higher but will likely stay down unless they want to bring this house of cards down so we thought did we want that mortgage of 10x earnings hanging over us for the rest of our lives? So we took another day to decide, rang the EA back yesterday and told him to stick the property up where the sun don't shine. We doubled down and asked the EA **never** to call us back again So there's my story. Feeling elated yet miserable at the same time. There really is not much hope for FTBs. Everyone seems to be in on it or wants to dance till the music stops. The number of times we've heard "housing ladder" this year .... Anyway guess we got a chance to reevaluate and perhaps when we look back in a few years we hope to thank Mr. Hammond for his help. For now though, have we dodged the bullet?

I've just had a buyer pull out after 4 (!) months. I was just about to exchange contracts & move into a cottage that I'd set my heart on. So, I rang the agent, explained my situation & told them that I could get a let to but on my current house so as not to lose the new property. Vendors were ok with this. Then, after further investigation, I discover that the stamp duty surcharge applies whenever you buy a second property - even if it's going to be your primary residence & , in my case, it's a whopping £10k extra & I just can't afford it. I know you can claw it back if you sell within 18 months but I can't comfortably afford to front this money so the deal is off. I'm just so annoyed about this - it seems really poorly thought out. There must be loads of people in my situation who need to let to buy because they can't sell their house for whatever reason or perhaps need to relocate for a couple of years and don't want to rent in the place they are moving to so need to purchase a second home as their main residence. My understanding is that this is still in consultation but will come into effect after April 1. Anyone know if there are likely to be any last minute changes or if there's anywhere it's possible to get your thoughts heard over this apparently poorly thought through piece of legislation?