Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR) has been abolished as of 1st June 2024. MDR was a relief from Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) that came into effect when two or more dwellings were purchased in the same transaction or in linked transactions. The relief allowed the purchaser to calculate tax based on the average value of the properties, rather than the aggregate value.
HMRC reported that, in 2022-2023, the tax relief had cost £700 million.
On 30 November 2021 a consultation (Stamp Duty Land Tax: mixed-property purchases and Multiple Dwellings Relief) set out options to improve fairness and tackle abuse of MDR. The consultation closed in February 2022.
One year later, an external evaluation was carried out as part of HMRC’s Tax Reliefs Evaluations Programme. The review found no strong evidence that the tax relief encouraged residential property investment. It also found that the tax relief had only a minimal positive impact on overall housing supply or private rented sector supply.
Only 17% of private individuals who claimed MDR said they were aware of the relief before they purchased property. This indicates that the change is unlikely to have a significant impact on any decision to buy multiple dwellings, and helped to mitigate concerns that scrapping the MDR might affect affordability for some households intending to purchase multiple dwellings.
The evaluation explored the impact on businesses and found that scrapping MDR was likely to have a negligible effect. The changes will not affect some businesses, such as landlords purchasing a single buy-to-let property.
The changes are not expected to significantly affect how businesses interact with the HMRC and therefore the customer experience would be broadly the same. In fact, it was thought that customer experience should improve, as abolishing the MDR simplifies stamp duty rules.
One-off costs associated with familiarising staff with the new rules, upskilling staff and updating software are to be expected, but HMRC says there are unlikely to be any continuing costs. It therefore made the decision to scrap MDR as it was deemed not to be fit for purpose. However, an estimated £380,000 upgrade is required to IT systems before the change can be brought into effect.