Agents report frantic race to beat Stamp Duty deadline

Estate agents have been struggling to help property investors beat the deadline for lower Stamp Duty rates after last week’s Budget.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves raised the rate from 3% to 5% on buy-to-let properties in the Budget, to take effect from the very next day on Thursday.

So, any buyers and agents who wanted to beat the extra tax payments had to exchange before midnight on Wednesday. And missing the deadline meant landlords paying thousands extra in Stamp Duty.

We swung into action and moved heaven and earth to assist buyers of second home.”

Robert Sturges, Regional Director for Central and Prime Central London at Chestertons, says: “As soon as the Chancellor made the announcement, we swung into action and moved heaven and earth to assist buyers of second homes that were in a position to finalise their purchases to exchange contracts before the midnight deadline.”

Chestertons was involved in five multi-million pound sales in Kensington, Hyde Park, Notting Hill and Chelsea, all agreed at the last minute.

No survey

“One of the buyers made the decision to go ahead without a survey on the basis that any minor remedial work would be far outweighed by the £65,000 additional Stamp Duty payment required,” he says.

In another case, a seller and buyer agreed a lower deposit of just 1.5%, to exchange contracts.

Having an immediate cliff-edge like this will create a huge shock.”

Saif Derzi, MD of Property Buyers Today, based in Lincolnshire, told The Times how he was struggling to get six purchases to the point of exchange on Wednesday evening, saving between £40,000 and £50,000 in Stamp Duty.

“Having an immediate cliff-edge like this will create a huge shock — it’ll affect hundreds of thousands of ongoing purchases,” he said.

One agent had to fly home from Oman to arrange the sale of a £6.75 million mews house in Mayfair, and avoid an extra £135,000 tax bill, he told the Evening Standard.