Excellent experience start to finish – always very responsive to any queries and the turnaround on the property I was buying was very quick, even in the busy time leading up to stamp duty deadline. Jenny was always very helpful and went above and beyond to close on a short timescale.
Almost a month ago the Chancellor announced a stamp duty holiday for properties in England that will run until 31st March 2021.
The holiday means that the threshold for the payment of stamp duty land tax has been increased from £125,000.00 to £500,000.00. This has certainly been welcomed by buyers, estate agents and developers to help bolster the property market and wider economy that has undoubtedly taken a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Myself and my colleagues in the Residential Property team have seen a flurry of new instructions as a result of the changes with many buyers. The big winners appear to be people looking to move to larger properties who may previously have been deterred by the tax bill that this would have generated.
With all buyers now exempt on properties up to £500,000.00, many buyers are now paying no stamp duty at all with figures suggest that nine out of 10 buyers will escape the tax completely
This holiday is at present not intended to last forever and so and purchases completed after 31st March 2021 will revert to the old rates, meaning first time buyers outside of London would be exempt from stamp duty on purchases up to £300,000.00, with people who already own or have ever owned property being liable on purchases from £125,000.00.
The savings to be made with the current exemption on purchase sup to £500,000.00 is therefore significant, particularly given average house prices in our region and more buyers will continue to benefit whilst this holiday is in effect.
If you’d like to speak to Jennifer, please call 0161 832 3304 or email her via jennifer.smith@dbf-law.co.uk
