The Stamp Duty Deadline is Approaching
This year has been unprecedented in more ways than one. The pandemic has personally impacted many of us and has created much uncertainty for the property sector.
However, as mortgage rates continued to rise, house price sales hit new highs, we saw the highest month on month increase (2%) since 2004 in August. By September, the year on year increase was up 5%, the largest yearly rise since 2016.
The stamp duty holiday played a large part in fuelling this demand however a new report published by Rightmove has revealed that asking prices for properties coming on to the market decreased by 0.5% from October to November. They’ve suggested that, as the stamp duty holiday deadline on 31st March 2021 looms, sellers are pricing their properties to encourage fast sales so that they too can benefit from the tax savings on their onward purchases.
We all understand that the coronavirus pandemic has caused workforce issues for many businesses and this has meant mortgage applications have been delayed and are taking much longer to be approved, we, therefore, recommend you act quickly if you want to take advantage of the Stamp Duty holiday.
What is the Stamp Duty Holiday?
On 8 July 2020, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a temporary stamp duty holiday that cut the rate of stamp duty to zero per cent for all properties £500,000 or under until 31 March 2021.
This means that, if you are purchasing a property that is £400,000 as a main residence, right now you pay £0 stamp duty, previous to the holiday you would have paid £10,000.
The holiday also benefited buyers of additional properties, for example, buy-to-let investors. The new rate for additional properties starts at three per cent up to £500,000, which, using the same example of a £400,000 property, would save the buyer £10,000 in stamp duty.