Research conducted by First Direct has found that 66% of first-time buyers don’t know what stamp duty means and 25% don’t know who pays the stamp duty.
The UK-wide survey probed more than 2,000 home-buyers and established that 5% of Brits think stamp duty is a sales tax based on the square footage of the property, whereas stamp duty is a fee charged for the physical stamp that is impressed on documents – like property title deeds – to make them legal. It is paid for by the buyer.
Almost 70% of Brits can’t give the correct meaning of an offset mortgage and 67% don’t know that ERC means Early Repayment Charge.
To help demystify the process for first-time buyers, First Direct has produced a series of videos that use comedy sketches to help people get to grips with the common phrases and terminology used when buying a house.
Tracie Pearce, head of mortgages at First Direct, said: “We want to make buying a property as simple as possible for our customers and our videos help to explain the mortgage process in everyday language which we hope will guide, reassure and ease our customers through this process.”