The rumoured six-week stamp duty holiday extension could see up to 160,000 additional property transactions in England benefit from the tax saving, according to Rightmove.
The chancellor Rishi Sunak is said to be considering a limited extension through to mid-May to prevent thousands of homes sales from falling through, the Telegraph has reported.
“It is certainly the case that a lot of people would be caught in the completion trap if the holiday were to end when it is due to,” a source told the newspaper.
But a spokesperson for the Treasury said: “We do not comment on future tax policy outside of fiscal events.”
If a six-week stamp duty holiday extension is granted, Rightmove estimates that between 120,000 and 160,000 additional property transactions in England could benefit from the tax cut.
The portal says that if as many as 160,000 transactions made it past the deadline, then property purchasers could save around £1bn in total.
This is based on the number of property transactions that completed each month in England between September and December 2020, according to data from HMRC.
Currently, Rightmove estimates that around 100,000 buyers who agreed a purchase last year are set to lose out, if the deadline stays as 31st March.
Rightmove’s director of property data Tim Bannister said that due to the nature of the conveyancing process there will be edge cases still unable to complete in time, but a six-week extension to the stamp duty deadline would come as a welcome relief to many purchasers desperately trying to get their purchase through the logjam.
Bannister said: “We know the stamp duty holiday was intended as a temporary stimulus for the market, but the delays we’ve seen in the home-moving process have been through no fault of the buyers and sellers who agreed a sale last year and who are now desperately trying to get their deals over the line.
“The delays have been a result of the huge number trying to go through, along with the many challenges of the people involved in the process working from home.
“If there was a six-week extension it should give the majority of the sales from last year the chance to complete in time.”
One in five buyers who agreed a purchase in July have still not completed
Comments (10)
I just see this article as Rightmove aggrandizing the numbers based on a rumour released through the Telegraph (who are running a campaign to abolish Stamp Duty) by an unidentified source which has not been confirmed or remotely supported by anyone in Government or the Treasury.
I am one of the people that will benefit from this if it happens and I would be extremely grateful given all that we have been through in the purchase of our new home and the stress that comes of the completion date currently sitting on a knife edge!
I sense this will be more of a problem for agents who haven’t managed expectations properly. I’ve seen some agents advertising as recently as last month to “buy this home now and save £15k stamp duty” who invariably will reap what they sow.
They gave us six months notice……. personally can’t see the problem. Might well be proved wrong come the 1st of April but anything we have that isn’t going to go by then the buyers are well aware of and have factored in the cost of the stamp duty. Any unpleasant surprises and I am sure we will renegotiate. Kicking it down the road six weeks is just shifting the problem.
Love the image used in this story…
PB commented, “it doesn’t really matter to us, our fee is safe regardless of the sale falling through, our business plan is boomin marvellous” 😉
I’m not so sure an extra 6 weeks will sort this; if there are 160,000 not enough properties to complete chains right now it’s hard to see where an additional 160,000 end node properties are going to magically appear from.
[An end node property is new build, vendor dying, going into rented accommodation, leaving the country, moving in together and not long or short letting the spare property (not having a property requirement that extends the chain)]
If it’s the best we’re going to get we shouldn’t complain. It’s better than nothing.
I’m not complaining I just can’t see where all those end of chains are coming from.
Morning Robert
Im not clear myself if the 160,000 guesstimate are endpoints as you say or total transactions in chains. But Im sure the higher the number the better it sounds ….
Rightmove obviously have a vested interest in an extension and keeping agents paying fees.
Who really knows? I do know there are a lot of agents herabouts have chains with no end and no real prospect of creating an end.