After the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak extends the stamp duty holiday, Sandra Davidson’s Azeem Salemohamed gives his take on the 3 March budget …
While millions have received the Covid-19 vaccine and we have a road map out of lockdown, the UK still faces challenging times. We’re still in a pandemic, unemployment is rising and debt is fuelling the economy. Yet in his latest budget, the chancellor has done well to deflect any really tough decisions.
There are plenty of headline grabbing announcements; the increase in corporation tax and the extension of the furlough scheme. But nothing in the budget is going to make a massive difference to the property market – except of course the extension of the stamp duty holiday.
Last month I argued for ending the holiday in March, as planned, but I can see why the chancellor decided on an extension. In troubled times it’s understandable that he wanted to keep the feelgood factor generated by the tax break going.
There will be winners from the announcement; people who were thinking of putting their properties on the market in January but were wary they’d left it too late. With the holiday now ending on 30 June, those vendors will be thinking ‘let’s reassess’.
Buying and selling at the same time?
Here are 10 things that could go wrong, and often do go wrong, and what, if anything, you can do to avoid them.
Buying and selling at the same time?
Here are 10 things that could go wrong, and often do go wrong, and what, if anything, you can do to avoid them.
The issue with the stamp duty holiday is that it means a continuation of the pattern of peaks and troughs we’re seeing in the housing market.
In our patch there is still lots of demand bringing with it high offers, and this month’s figures from Rightmove reveal supply is slackening off.
And, according to our branch manager, prices went up in the last year by almost 5%, against the backdrop of one of the worst recessions we’ve ever seen.
But while the stamp duty holiday created artificial demand in the lower end of the market, there aren’t massive savings to be made if you’re buying at over £500k – so most second steppers.
That said, if you’re thinking of putting your property up for sale, the certainty brought by the announcement means this is a great time, particularly if you’re selling below the £500k mark. You’re going to benefit from the premiums that are being achieved – dreams are continuing to come true, and I don’t see things changing quickly. Though it will be interesting to see what March’s figures will bring us next month!
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