THOUSANDS of first-time buyers have been warned to act now to save up to £15,000 in Stamp Duty.

The amount you can spend on a property before incurring Stamp Duty will fall on March 31 2025, penalising thousands of would-be homeowners.

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Stamp Duty is a tax you may have to pay if you buy a home in England or Northern Ireland that is worth more than a certain price.

For most homeowners this is above £250,000.

But the amount that a first-time buyer could spend was increased to £425,000 in the September 2022 mini-budget.

First-time buyers also benefit from a further discounted rate on property purchases of up to £625,000.

From April these thresholds will plummet.

Properties with a value of up to £300,000 will not incur a Stamp Duty charge, while the reduced rate will only apply to homes worth up to £500,000.

The changes will mean that someone buying a property worth £425,000 would currently pay no Stamp Duty but from April will owe the taxman £6,250.

But in some areas of London first-time buyers could be slapped with tax bills which are £15,000 higher than before once the thresholds are slashed.

Should I act now?

It usually takes around 25 weeks from listing a property to completing a sale, according to property website Zoopla, which means buyers have limited time to beat the deadline.

David Hollingworth, of mortgage broker L&C, said first-time buyers should act now to avoid being penalised.

“First time buyers wanting to be sure that they can take advantage of the elevated Stamp Duty relief before it reverts to the lower levels in March will want to be in the process as soon as possible.”

Although a first-time buyer may be able to move quickly, the person they are buying the property from may be in a transaction chain, he explains.

This is when you want to buy a house but need to wait until your seller buys their next property.

Buying a property can also take longer than people think as it may take time for an offer to be accepted because of practical issues or completing legal paperwork.

He adds: “Having as long as possible to keep things on track for a March deadline will be important, especially with Christmas on the horizon.”

The festive season frequently brings the property market to a standstill which can slow the process of buying a house and push completion dates into the New Year.

Incentives such as Stamp Duty “holidays” can also create a cliff edge deadline, which can create a busier period in the property market as buyers rush to complete their purchases.

But there may be hope for buyers who have not yet started the process.

The Chancellor could unveil plans to extend the policy in the Budget on October 31, which would give buyers more chance to complete their purchase.

The last Stamp Duty holiday was extended for three months in order to allow buyers to complete on their purchase if they were stuck in a housing chain.

The holiday had been introduced to help keep the property market afloat during the pandemic after thousands of property transactions fell through.

It was extended after calls from home buyers and experts to allow more time to finalise property sales.

Where are the cheapest areas to buy?

The average price of a first-time buyer property can vary substantially depending on where you live.

Hull is the cheapest area in the UK to purchase a home for the first-time.

A typical first property in the area is worth £114,300, more than half of the average sold price of a home in the UK, which is £328,457 according to Zoopla.

Sunderland comes in second place at £122,600 for an average first home.

Meanwhile, Burnley and Dundee were also ranked as affordable areas, coming in third and fourth place respectively at £128,800 and £131,700.

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The mayor of a Mexican city plagued by gang violence has been murdered less than a week after taking office.

Photos circulating online among locals showed what appeared to be Alejandro Arcos’s severed head on top of a Volkswagen pick-up truck and the rest of his body inside a car in the Villas del Roble neighbourhood, east of the city.

Arcos was sworn in as the mayor of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, last Monday, and his death was confirmed by authorities late on Sunday.

Local media reported that Arcos had been decapitated, but state prosecutors offered no details when confirming his death in a statement on Sunday.

His death provoked unease across Chilpancingo, a city which is no stranger to political violence, with residents choosing not to leave their homes after 9pm and schools suspending classes.

Alejandro Moreno, the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, called on federal authorities to take charge of the investigation given Guerrero’s “ungovernability”.

Mr Moreno also revealed that Arcos’s murder came just three days after the shooting of Francisco Tapia, the city government’s new secretary.

“They had been in office less than a week,” Mr Moreno said. “They were young and honest public servants who were seeking progress for their community.”

Chilpancingo, the capital of the Guerrero province, has been home to violent turf battles between the Ardillos and the Tlacos, two local drug gangs, for years.

It is a city so violent that the Ardillos group once organised a violent demonstration, hijacked an armoured government car, and took 10 police officers hostage after its gang leaders were arrested for drugs and weapons possession.

Arcos’s social media posts reveal he had spent his first few days in office overseeing disaster relief after Hurricane John caused severe flooding in beach resort Acapulco and its surrounding towns.

He had also spent time meeting with relief workers and residents in the hours before his death, according to photos posted on his Facebook account.

In addition to the murders of Tapia and Acros, at least six candidates running for public office were killed in Guerrero in the run-up to the June elections.

During the election campaign, Acros’s team accused his opponents of waging a “dirty war” against him by linking him to the Ardillos drug gang on flyers which were distributed to thousands of residents.

Arcos went on to win the election – his third attempt – by around 1,000 votes on June 2, the same day Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as Mexico’s first female president.

In the months leading up to the country’s general election, at least 37 candidates were killed, while dozens more dropped out after receiving death threats.

As a result, Ms Sheinbaum has made “pacifying the country” one of her primary aims while in office.

A strategy presentation seen by the Wall Street Journal showed proposals to slash killings in the country’s 10 deadliest cities, which includes Acapulco.

“We are developing a programme for the municipalities that at this moment have the largest number of homicides,” Ms Sheinbaum said shortly after taking office on Oct 1.

Acros is the third mayor to be murdered in Guerrero this year, after the deaths of Copala’s Salvador Villalva Flores and Malinaltepec’s Acasio Flores Guerrero.

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The commander of the overseas arm of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, who has not been seen in public for more than a week, is alive and well, according to his deputy, dismissing speculation that he was killed by Israeli air strikes targeting Hizbollah in Lebanon.  

Esmail Ghaani, who leads the Guard’s overseas military service, the Quds Force, was reportedly in Lebanon to offer help to Tehran’s regional ally Hizbollah around the time that Israel ramped up its offensive against the militant group. Israel has targeted Hizbollah leaders with waves of air strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and elsewhere in the country.

The group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by Israeli strikes that flattened at least six residential blocks in the Dahiyeh suburb of the Lebanese capital late last month. Israel also targeted Hashem Safieddine, the heir apparent to Nasrallah, in strikes on Dahiyeh last week.

However, Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi, Ghaani’s deputy for co-ordination affairs, told local reporters on Monday that there was no need for the Guards to release any official statement to shut down the rumours.

“He’s healthy and well and doing his job,” Masjedi said of Ghaani, while declining to provide further details.

Ghaani assumed command of the Quds Force, which arms, trains and advises Iranian-backed militant groups across the region, in 2020 after its then-chief Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq, although he does not have the same public profile of his predecessor.

Soleimani was revered in Iran and among its allies in the region, which include Hizbollah, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iraq’s Shia militias.

The Guards have not confirmed whether Ghaani travelled to Beirut recently, although another Iranian commander, Abbas Nilforoushan, was reportedly killed alongside Nasrallah.

Ghaani’s last public appearance was more than a week ago, at a commemoration ceremony for Nasrallah at Hizbollah’s office in Tehran. He was notably absent from Friday prayers in Tehran last week, an event that was unusually led by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He was also missing from a recent ceremony to honour the commander behind the recent strikes on Israel, which involved about 190 ballistic missiles. The head of the Quds Force would have been expected to attend both events.

Israel has killed at least 19 members in the 12 months since Hamas launched its attack on Israel, primarily in Syria. If Ghaani has been killed in Lebanon, then it could prompt Iran to consider further strikes against Israel, analysts say.

Iran’s leaders have adopted a defiant stance in the face of rising tensions with Israel and the escalating threat of an all-out Middle East war.

President Masoud Pezeshkian flew to Qatar last week as Iranian airspace was closed due to security fears, while foreign minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Beirut and Syria as a demonstration of solidarity with Hizbollah.

Oil minister Mohsen Paknejad also visited the oilfields and ports in the south of the country, where he promised workers a pay rise, amid speculation that Israel might target Iran’s oil installations in retaliation for the missile strikes.

Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade has freed a group of captive Ukrainian soldiers during an engagement with a Russian sabotage group in Kharkiv Oblast, the brigade announced on October 7.

The skirmish occurred near the village of Borova, in an area where the elite unit has been holding the line against repeated Russian assaults.

According to reports, four Ukrainian soldiers were captured by a Russian sabotage group of around 10 fighters near the Lyman direction, close to the administrative borders of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv oblasts.

Ukrainian forces noticed their absence and quickly deployed drones to track the movement of the Russian unit.

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Norway’s state-controlled oil and gas company Equinor has bought a 10 per cent stake in Denmark’s Ørsted, becoming the second-largest shareholder in the world’s biggest offshore wind farm developer behind the Danish government.

Anders Opedal, Equinor’s chief executive, said on Monday that the shareholding — worth about $2.5bn — had been accumulated over time and was part of the Norwegian group’s growing focus on renewables.

“Equinor has a long-term perspective and will be a supportive owner in Ørsted. This is a countercyclical investment in a leading developer, and a premium portfolio of operating offshore wind assets,” he added.

Ørsted is one of the biggest renewable energy companies, evolving out of Danish Oil and Natural Gas in the past decade to become the leading developer of offshore wind farms from the North Sea to the US and Taiwan.

But the group, which is controlled by the Danish state through a 50.1 per cent stake, has struggled in recent years due to a botched expansion in the US that led to big writedowns on projects and the suspension of its dividend until at least 2025. It also scrapped plans for a green fuel plant in Sweden this year.

Shares in Ørsted, which have fallen almost 70 per cent from their 2021 peak, rose 6 per cent by Monday afternoon following the news that Equinor was taking a 9.8 per cent stake. Equinor’s shares fell 4 per cent.

The Norwegian oil and gas major said it had no current plans to raise the stake further than 10 per cent.

Biraj Borkhataria, head of global energy transition research at RBC, said the stake gave Equinor access to offshore wind assets “without the risk on construction and delivery, as well as supply chains”.

He added: “Equinor has in the past shown willingness to buy public entities.”

Ørsted currently has 10.4 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity, and is aiming to reach 38GW by 2030. 

Opedal said as a “rule of thumb” it would cost about $4bn to develop 1GW compared with the $2.5bn it is paying for the stake in Ørsted. 

“We find this an attractive investment, creating long term value for our shareholders,” he added. 

Equinor said it was “supportive” of the Danish group’s management and strategy and would not seek board representation.

“The offshore wind industry is currently facing a set of challenges, but we remain confident in the long term outlook for the sector, and the crucial role offshore wind will play in the energy transition,” Opedal said.

Equinor has recently said it would reduce the size of its renewable energy unit in line with other oil and gas groups scaling back their ambitions in the sector.

The Norwegian group has said it wants to have half its gross investments in 2030 to be in renewable energy or low-carbon projects but it has faced fierce criticism from environmentalists over what they perceive as its slow progress and its continued heavy investment in oil and gas.

Equinor has less than 1GW in renewable capacity as of the end of 2023 but is trying to reach 12-16GW by 2030, according to its 2023 annual report.

It has also faced struggles developing offshore wind in the US, where its Empire Wind project has been affected by higher costs.