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Surge in buyer and vendor enquiries follows stamp duty holiday

Research by both Rightmove and Yomdel show huge increase in market activity since Rishi Sunak's announcement last week.

Nigel Lewis

Latest industry figures from two reliable sources reveal that the Chancellor’s six-month stamp duty holiday for those buying homes under £500,00 has stimulated the housing market in the way agents had hoped it might.

Both Rightmove and Yomdel have published data this morning revealing significant surges in vendor and buyer enquiries to estate agents.

Yomdel says its data for the week ending midnight 12 July which covers the four days following Sunak’s announcement, the numbers of vendors requesting home valuations via live chat shot up almost 30% compared to the previous week, and an astonishing 105% higher than the same week in 2019.

Rightmove has reported similar figures for on the demand side. This includes a 46% surge in enquiries to agents for homes priced between £400,000 and £500,000. And due to a tax saving of £15,000 created by the stamp duty holiday, demand for properties priced between £500,001 and £750,000 also increased, by 40%.

“The uplift in enquiries is likely a mixture of people looking in new areas to see what they can now afford, changing their search criteria to bigger, slightly more expensive homes, and new movers coming into the market because they now have enough extra budget to move home,” says Rightmove’s Commercial Director Miles Shipside (left).

“Although low deposit mortgage options are slowly coming back to the market, first-time buyers who were already exempt from stamp duty up to £300,000 may find that they will be competing with some buy-to-let investors also looking to make the most of the stamp duty savings in this sector of the market.”

July 15, 2020

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