25% of home movers made decision based on stamp duty holiday savings

Rishi Sunak and the estate industry face significant problems if the stamp duty holiday deadline is not postponed or modified, research by an leading prime market mortgage broker has revealed.

Enness Global says of the 1,003 home movers it polled, a quarter said they had made the decision to buy a property based on the savings created by the suspension of duty.

Half are worried that their purchase won’t complete by 31^st March and two thirds want the Chancellor to extend the deadline.

he figures point to both the government and estate agents facing a backlash should thousands of home movers miss the deadline, including a hike in fall-throughs as homebuyers abandon their home move rather than pay the hefty additional stamp duty, assuming they haven’t exchanged.

Hugh Wade-Jones, MD of Enness Global (pictured), says: “It’s clear that the opportunity to save on stamp duty has helped to revitalise the UK property market in what have been tough times due to Covid.

“But for many homebuyers it has been an added bonus rather than the driving factor behind their intent to purchase, with just 25% of buyers entering the market due to the stamp duty holiday itself.

“This is still quite considerable when you consider there are around one million transactions completed a year and so a 25% boost translates to hundreds of thousands of additional sales.

“Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and it looks unlikely that we will see an extension beyond the original March deadline.”