STAMP DUTY HOLIDAY TO HELP THE MARKET

09.07.2020

Despite lots of negative media coverage as to how the housing market might react, we have been unbelievably busy since we were allowed to resume business. There was a lot of pent up demand anyway, which has returned, but now combined with new buyers who realized during lock down they need a property with more space, or a garden, or somewhere to work at home, or some other reason to move.

Now buyers have the added incentive of the stamp duty holiday announced by the Chancellor on July 8th. This will obviously help the market under the £500,000 threshold, but the added activity will feed through into the higher price ranges. Unfortunately we still have problems with mortgage lenders being cautious and inconsistent in their policies and criteria, but we expect the market to now firm up more over the next few weeks.

We are managing to arrange viewings safely with our protocols in place and we are producing virtual tours for most properties we market. Of course we have got some existing buyers trying to negotiate a lower offer because of the  various predictions house prices may fall later this year, but the stamp duty holiday may now prevent that.