I own a property abroad, the value of which is £150,000. I wish to purchase my first house in England for £450,000. Would I need to pay the higher stamp duty land tax for this? I never lived in the property abroad, and currently rent in the UK.

Arthur Weller replies:
If you look at the following guidance on the Gov.UK website: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/570876/SDLT_Higher_rates_for_additional_properties.pdf (at paragraph 3.15 on page 10) you can see that, for these rules, ownership of a property abroad counts, and so you will need to pay the extra stamp duty land tax for this purchase, because you will be judged to be owning two properties.