Abolition of the transfer tax for first time home buyers in 2021. Will this be helpful for the starters?
Despite the corona crisis, rents have risen faster this year than in the past 6 years. In addition, the mortgage interest is historically low. The ingredients to buy a home for a first-time buyer. In many cases, buying will be cheaper than renting.
Unfortunately, the housing market in the Netherlands is tight, especially for starters. That is why the government wants to abolish the transfer tax of 2% for these starters from 2021. Starters are first time buyers up to the age of 35. That saves them for instance € 7,000 on a house of € 350,000.
A buyer needs a statement to make use of this exemption. In this statement, the buyer declares that he / she meets all requirements and it must be submitted it to the notary. If one of the buyers is older than 35 years, this buyer pays 2% transfer tax on the part of the house that he / she will become the owner of.
The aim of lowering the transfer tax for starters would be to stimulate accessibility for starters to the housing market. Of course, this sounds very nice and seems like a good step to support starters. However, the Dialogic research agency has conducted research on behalf of the Ministry of Finance. And it turned out that this is not a solution to the structural problems in the housing market. Unfortunately, the real problem of the housing shortage will remain for the time being. Nevertheless, we are of course pleased with this gesture.
