Spring Budget 2024 – Abolition of Multiple Dwellings Relief for SDLT

Multiple Dwellings Relief (“MDR”) is a current tax relief from Stamp Duty Land Tax

6 Mar 2024

Multiple Dwellings Relief (“MDR”) is a current tax relief from Stamp Duty Land Tax (“SDLT”) which was introduced in 2011. It was created with the aim of reducing the barrier to investing in residential property and promoting the private residential housing supply. It does this by providing tax relief from SDLT when someone purchases two or more dwellings (residential properties) in a single transaction.

This relief is thought to be abused through incorrect claims to MDR and it is also not considered effective in its intentions as around 51% of claims are from individuals buying properties for private use. HMRC believe that tax repayment agents encourage the submission of incorrect claims to MDR in particular targeting those individuals. Businesses identified that MDR had little or no influence on their decision making.

The Government has therefore concluded that MDR is no longer a cost-effective method of achieving its intention of supporting the housing supply and legislation in the Finance Act 2024 will be brought in to abolish the relief from 1 June 2024.

For contracts exchanged on or before 6 March 2024 MDR will continue to apply, even where completion takes place after 1 June 2024, but only if there is no variation to the contract after 6 March.

MDR will also continue to apply to contracts which substantially perform before 1 June 2024.