The Evening Standard is at its Homey best again. They publish a handy contour map showing how minimum selling prices rise from the outer suburbs to form a peak in the City, which would be of no surprise to anybody who takes an interest in land values*... and then they wail on about the "stamp duty trap":
Yes, Stamp Duty Land Tax, like all taxes on transactions (such as VAT, PAYE etc) is an awful tax, but what costs you more? The SDLT or the home?
* The increase in land values towards the center is far steeper than the map suggests, because the center is much more densely built up than the suburbs. It's easily a ratio of a hundred-to-one between the center and the outer fringe.
Debate Magazine
