Is this the wiggle room Hammond needs? Property transactions rise by 9.2%, says HMRC

The number of residential property transactions during October increased by 9.2% year-on-year, according to the latest figures from HMRC. Last month 105,260 residential properties were sold above the value of £40,000 in the UK which, as well as being substantially higher than October last year, is 1.7% higher than September. But the market in England has some way to go before it attains the heady heights of the pre-financial crash years during which transactions reached over 130,000 a month. “The uptick in property transactions demonstrates the underlying stability of the sector, and is a positive message to the market ahead of Wednesday’s Budget, which is expected to be largely housing focussed,” says Stephen Wasserman, Managing Director of West One Loans (pictured, left). “It will take some time for the market to fully recover from the upheaval of stamp duty hikes and economic uncertainty caused by Brexit negotiations, but if Hammond scraps stamp duty for first-time buyers, as it’s rumoured he may do so, we could see the market grow at a faster rate.” These latest HMRC figures come just a month after it revealed that its revenues from Stamp Duty levied on residential properties increased by 10% to £11.76 billion…