Barratt to pay stamp duty for buyers of new homes

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The builder — reeling from a 68% crash in profits — is offering to pay the 3% stamp duty charged on new Barratt homes worth between £250,000 and £500,000, saving buyers up to £15,000.

It will also pay the 1% levy for buyers of homes worth from £175,000 to £250,000 with all homes worth under £175,000 already exempted by the Government.

Downing Street last week raised the stamp duty threshold from £125,000 to £175,000 in a desperate attempt to help first-time buyers in particular onto the housing ladder.

But it was seen as "too little too late" and a raft of housebuilders are now offering their own incentives to buyers.

Barratt today made its stamp duty holiday official, along with a range of other incentives, saying £175,000 was "well below the value of modern homes". The deals apply until Christmas.

It came as Barratt reported profits of £137.3million for the year to the end of June compared with £424.8million previously.

The slump came after the group wrote off £208.4million from its £3.3billion land bank. It also revealed forward sales by the end of June were less than half last year's level.

Chief executive Mark Clare said it was "an intensely difficult market place" with prices and sales volumes falling sharply.

"There is little prospect for any material improvement in trading conditions until mortgage finance and customer confidence return," he said.

Clare said London was Barratt's best-performing region with demand for luxury homes such as those at its Bishop's Avenue development in Hampstead booming.

It has sold 11 of the 12 properties for between £3million and £11million since they went on sale in March.