With stats produced by Rightmove indicating that it currently takes 126 days on average to complete a purchase on the open market from the day a sale is agreed, buyers, sellers, and indeed agents, might be forgiven for thinking they have missed the boat. Some purchasers yet to agree a sale can still meet the deadline.

If you are an estate agent with clients selling a property in the £250,000 to £500,000 price bracket, there are still two viable ways you can help your customers to achieve a tax-free transaction by the end of June. This is through either a timed auction or a live-streamed national property auction.

A purchase through auction can actually be completed in as little as 28 days. When a buyer purchases a property, there is a fixed completion date from the outset and once the hammer falls, the contracts are exchanged, and the completion date is legally set. This is typically 20 working days following the date of the auction – unless otherwise specified in the legal pack. So, there is still time for your customers to sell and attract plenty of buyers looking to avoid paying stamp duty on their next property.

More estate agents turning to auction

It’s clear to see that more estate agents are recognising the benefits of partnering with an auctioneer and referring customers to auctions, especially after the past 12 months where cash-flow has been hit hard. In February, we reported that the number of properties we sold in partnership with estate agents, doubled year-on-year.

Through auctions, estate agents can turn properties around much more quickly than on the open market, reduce the risk of the sale falling through to almost zero – and don’t have to wait months to get paid. The benefits clearly go beyond the stamp duty holiday, if estate agents are considering working with auctioneers in the short-term, it’s clear why it would suit them in the long-term too.

Timed and national property auctions

With a timed auction, your customer can choose the length of the auction, starting whenever they like and fixing the end time to ensure completion takes place before the stamp duty holiday deadline, comfortably allowing sellers to beat the 30th June deadline even up till early June.

There’s also the option of a live-streamed auction, as long as the properties you are selling are registered in the catalogue of a live-streamed auction that takes place by the start of June.

Both methods are speedy enough to give your seller confidence that they will beat the deadline and with a fall-through rate of less than 1%, there is little chance of the buyer pulling out or trying to renegotiate the price.

This should help to allay any fears your customers may have about missing the opportunity to capitalise on the stamp duty holiday. By selling by auction now, their buyers can save thousands of pounds on stamp duty, which may encourage them to stretch their budgets a little further, boosting the final sale price for your seller.

Andrew Parker is managing director and auctioneer at SDL Property Auctions.