The Chancellor has announced that a new rate of SDLT at 7% will be imposed on sales of homes worth more than £2m.

Miles Meacock, London Residential comments:

"Now that the 7% SDLT has come into play we are seeing the usual hiatus surrounding this daunting new tax bracket, but I think it will be highly unlikely our market will take a hammering because of its introduction. London is resilient. Prices have increased significantly over the past few years so there is some room for a small adjustment.

London is swelled by foreign investment, many of whom want to invest in Central London whatever the tax implications and with Italian SDLT, for example, set at 10%, London should still seem a slightly less painful investment option. London is an expensive city to live in but there are a lot of very good reasons for that. It has the brilliant education, culture and general way of life. Naturally, the 'non-natural persons' tax hike at the new level of 15% will no doubt have more effect than for the domestic market. These types of buyers often seek privacy and it is likely that these new tax levels will cause a slowing down of the investment market at that higher level.

Domestically there will be the inevitable ripples of discontent from purchasers significantly over the £2m mark as a 2% rise in Stamp Duty is a hefty increase, despite how wealthy one is and it certainly won't be a vote winning move. There certainly will be a knock on effect. BUT in our opinion this solution is better than the originally proposed mansion tax, which would unfairly penalise the equity rich and cash poor. In a way the hype surrounding the first suggested mansion tax has in fact eased the pain of the new proposal.

There has been huge pressure on governments to get people who can AFFORD to pay to pay up. However, we believe people will build in the stamp duty cost into their overall calculation on property purchase price. I can see that someone wanting to buy for £2.5m will now only look up to 2.4m as a purchase price so there will be a small knock on effect. For someone looking for a substantial house between £8 and £20 million they will just view it as a one off financial hit. Mansion tax as a rolling annual levy would be much more punitive hitting the elderly (for instance) who can ill afford  to pay such levels but happen to be in £2m plus houses which they may have bought 40 years ago."

Mark Jamieson, Country House Department comments:

"The country House market around the £2 million plus mark has been tough and challenging this year already. There is no doubt that those properties that are on the market around the £2 million price point are going to be affected by this big hike in stamp duty - it will be these asset rich but income low home owners "accidental millionaires" who may have bought 10/15 years ago for well under a million pounds who find they are now sitting on a £2 million house that will find they have much bargaining and negotiating to do or will decide to stay put and improve rather move. Especially once the additional costs of moving are factored in - with stamp duty rise at 7% plus solicitors fees and other moving costs you will be looking at 10% which is quite a significant figure to add into the overall budget and will ultimately affect what the gross level is that they can afford - this may well restrict supply.

On a positive note this will be a focus for realism and it will accelerate the price rebalancing that needs to be urgently addressed.

However for those at the higher end of the bracket £2.25 million plus properties where there is less flexibility for reducing the price this hike will have less effect as at this level - the  additional costs  will just be  factored into the overall  deal .

After the initial knee jerk reactions the bigger picture will prevail and the market will settle down as trading will continue and home owners and investors will still want to invest in the UK."