[wiredfool]

Sounds about like the US -- in King Co, WA anyway (a few years back), it cost about 9.1% to sell a house. There was 6% for the agents, and some handful of taxes and stuff for the other 3%. It's not that bad for the buyers though, as the seller pays most of the big stuff.

[benmmurphy]

just because the seller is writing the check doesn't mean they actually pay for it :) you could imagine a situation where taxes were dropped and instead of the sellers pocketing the extra money they are forced by competition to drop prices by the full amount of the tax saving.

[brc]

The true split of buyer/seller payment of the taxes depends on the type of market at the time. In a buyers market, the seller is going to pay all the taxes. In a sellers market, the buyer is going to pay all of them.

Either way, there is no justification for a tax on buying and selling things like houses and cars. Why you would want to disincentivise transactions between people I will never know.