As grandparents and already owning a house jointly, we were wondering if it would be beneficial for us to purchase a £140,000 leasehold flat in Birmingham in the name of our 12-year-old granddaughter? The purchase price will be half cash and half mortgage. Alternatively, could one of us come out from our existing property and then buy the flat as a first-time buyer exclusively in one's own name?

Arthur Weller replies:
If you look at HMRC guidance (www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/570876/SDLT_Higher_rates_for_additional_properties.pdf at paragraph 3.39 on page 14), you can see that if the parents of your granddaughter already own a property, this will be considered a purchase of a second property, forstamp duty land tax (SDLT) purposes. Even if you or your spouse 'come out of your existing property' this will not help, because the other spouse owns a property, and this is taken into account when considering whether the purchase is a second property purchase. However, maybe you could benefit from the new 'first time buyer' rules for SDLT purposes, introduced by the Chancellor in November 2017.