Take Advantage of the Stamp Duty Holiday
From 8th July 2020 through to 31st March 2021 buyers who complete the purchase of a property will not have to pay the stamp duty tax which is paid on the purchase price above £125,000. The maximum saving will come for people purchasing at £500,000 or above which will save them £15,000. This is like giving the buyer of the property a cheque for this amount to help them with the purchase, for carrying out works or for purchasing furniture or other items they may require when they move into their new home. At £250,000 the saving is £2,500 and so is of particular benefit to existing home owners who wish to move home to a larger property. First time buyers will not really see any further benefit as they didn’t have to pay stamp duty on properties up to £300,000 before the recent stamp duty holiday was introduced.
The issue will be that as we get into 2021 the solicitors and lenders are able to do what is necessary to complete agreed sales by the end of March to make sure their client and borrowers can have the saving as we do not currently anticipate there will be an extension to this holiday from having to pay the house purchase tax. We would therefore encourage people who are thinking of moving to place their property on the market as soon as possible so they can hopefully agree a sale by the end of the year which will mean it should have time to complete before 31st March 2021.
