It's been a frantic 12 months for buyers and sellers, with the market more buoyant than we can ever remember and record prices being achieved all over the UK.
The market has been fuelled by many factors, pent up demand following the first lockdown, a severe shortage of available properties on the market and the stamp duty holiday have all played their part in ensuring the housing market fuells the economy in the aftermath of COVID-19. Rightmove is reporting there are currently 700,000 current transactions, more than any other period over the last decade.
On July 8th 2020, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a temporary cut to stamp duty by raising the nil rate from £125,000 to £500,000 offering buyers a potential saving of up to £15,000. The holiday has already been extended once, from March 31st to June 30th due to the high volume of transactions but what happens after June 30th?
Well, there are still savings to be made. From July 1st to September 30th, there is a staggered return to previous stamp duty rates. During this time, buyers who are not purchasing an additional residence will not pay any stamp duty up to £250,000 and first time buyers are exempt up to £300,000. Stamp duty rates remain the same as before over and above these figures.
Unfortunately, the full holiday exemption ends on October 1st 2020, with stamp duty rates returning to levels that were in place prior to July 8th 2020. Any current purchase that does not complete by October 1st will not benefit from the staggered extension of the stamp duty holiday rates.
We expect the market to remain busy for the remainder of the year, there is always going to be a high demand for property in Bournemouth, Christchurch and the South Coast, and we are excited to see what the remainder of 2021 has in store for the housing market.