A GROWING number of property experts have welcomed the Scottish Government's announcement on stamp-duty reform.
David Mackie, The National Association of Estate Agents spokesman for Scotland, said: "Although we still await the details, we are encouraged that the Scottish Government is looking at options for changing the current 'slab' structure to a more progressive system."
The Council of Mortgage Lenders "thoroughly support" the proposals, while several estate agents also said the move should help to boost the country's ailing property market.
A spokesman said: "It's very early days but in principal we thoroughly support the process of moving from a slab system of taxation to a more progressive system and we are calling on the UK Government to make the same change."
Michael Luck, managing director of estate agents Slater Hogg & Howison, said: "Overall, we welcome the fact that the Scottish Government is considering different initiatives to boost the Scottish property market and we are encouraged by the proposed measures to assist first-time buyers."
However, there was concern over higher-value homes costing more than they currently would.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article