End Of Stamp Duty Holiday Sees Average House Prices Surge

The price of an average house is now as expensive as it has ever been, standing at just over £267,500, according to data from Halifax, who report that following the end of the stamp duty holiday last month, house price growth saw its strongest month since 2007. In June 2020, the month before the stamp duty holiday began, the typical standardised price for a UK property was £239,317. Therefore a home-mover would have faced SDLT costs of around £2,300. From July last year, the zero rate introduced on homes valued up to £500,000 (falling to £250,000 between July and September this year as the holiday was tapered out) meant no stamp duty would be payable on that same property. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/halifax-end-of-stamp-duty-holiday-sees-average-house-prices-surge-to-record-all-time-high.html 

House Price Growth Slows As End To Stamp Duty Holiday Looms

 UK house price growth slowed in September as economists said the looming end of the stamp duty tax break had cooled the market after a period of extraordinary growth. The average price grew by just 0.1% over the month to £248,742, a sharp slowdown compared with growth of 2% in August, according to Nationwide. The UK’s largest building society said annual house price growth fell back to 10%, down from 11% in August. That was down from annual growth of more than 13% as recently as June, the fastest since the property boom in 2004. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/30/uk-house-price-growth-slows-as-end-to-stamp-duty-holiday-looms

Housing Market Remains Buoyant

 Confidence and resilience in the housing market are expected to remain high beyond the end of government support, as falling numbers of prospective homeowners cite the risk of job losses as a barrier to purchase a property. Although furlough will close at the end of the month just over a third of people cite a risk of job loss as a barrier to homeownership (34%), compared to 68% in September 2020 and 45% just three months ago. The end of the stamp duty holiday also appears not to be denting confidence, with just over one in four people (26%) thinking now is a good time to buy a new home, with a similar number (25%) disagreeing. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/housing-market-remains-buoyant-despite-looming-ending-of-government-support.html

Asking Prices Hit All Time High

Despite the usual traditional summer holiday lull, fierce competition continues among buyers for a record low number of available properties for sale, with many who put off buying during the height of the stamp duty holiday now making their move. The latest data from Rightmove shows that the national average asking prices of newly marketed properties have risen by £1,091 this month to hit a new all-time high of £338,462, with buyer demand per property for sale more than double that of pre-pandemic levels. However, there are early signs of more properties coming to market, which may help to slowly rebuild buyer choice. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/asking-prices-hit-all-time-high-as-buyer-demand-continues-to-rise.html 

First-Time Buyers £25,000 Worse Off Due To Stamp Duty Holiday

The stamp duty holiday has increased the price of first-time buyer homes by an average of 11.7% in England in the last year, and by as much as 31.5% in some areas of the country, according to research from GetAgent. The average price of a first-time buyer home in July 2020, just before the holiday was introduced, was £212,166. However, the latest figures show the average first-time buyer home now costs £236,982, an increase of £24,816 or 11.7%. On a broad regional level, the North West has seen the largest increase, with the average first-time buyer now paying £168,820 - a 16.9% jump since July of last year. Read more on the Financial Reporter website.

https://www.financialreporter.co.uk/finance-news/first-time-buyers-25000-worse-off-due-to-stamp-duty-holiday.html 

Average UK House Price Fell By £10,000 In July

The average UK house price fell by £10,000 in July compared with a month earlier, official figures show, as the housing market appeared to cool after the phasing out of the stamp duty holiday. The average UK house price was £256,000 in July, which was £19,000 higher than a year earlier, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Average house prices in the year to July rose by 8%. However, the increase was down on the 13% recorded in the 12 months to June. The housing market fell slightly in July, as many homebuyers had rushed to complete their purchases before the stamp duty holiday deadline of 30 June. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/sep/15/average-uk-house-price-fell-by-10000-in-july-stamp-duty

Demand Remains Strong Heading Into Autumn

 Following the wind-down of the stamp duty holiday at the end of September, activity levels in the UK property market are predicted to remain high, albeit not at the same frenetic pace seen during the first half of the year. According to new research from Knight Frank, the data for August is unambiguous and shows demand remains exceptionally strong with the number of new prospective buyers registering during the month up 24% against the five-year average. With demand undeniably strong, the big unknown is supply. How quickly it picks up will be a determining factor for transaction volumes and prices. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/demand-remains-exceptionally-strong-heading-into-autumn-market.html

House Prices Hit Record High Despite Cut In Stamp Duty Break

The average UK house price reached a fresh record high in August while annual inflation cooled to a five-month low, after the partial end of the stamp duty holiday in England and Northern Ireland. Halifax, one of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders, said the average cost of a property increased by 0.7%, or £1,789, to £262,954, topping the previous peak of £261,642 recorded in May. The annual rate of house price inflation slowed to 7.1%, the lowest since March and down from 7.6% in July. However, compared with June 2020, when the housing market began to reopen after the first Covid-19 lockdown, prices remain more than £23,600, or 9.9%, higher. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/sep/07/uk-house-prices-stamp-duty-august-halifax 

Property Purchases Funded By Equity Release More Than Double In 2021

Over-55s keen to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday drove a 116% year-on-year increase in the number of people using equity release for property purchase, new research from more2life shows. The increase coincides with the introduction of the stamp duty holiday in July 2020 and highlights how over-55s are increasingly using equity release to help them move home – often to be close to family, friends or amenities. Property purchase cases increased by 208% between H1 2020 and H2 2020 and while this started to slow as the SDLT holiday deadline loomed. Read more on the Financial Reporter website.

https://www.financialreporter.co.uk/later-life/property-purchases-funded-by-equity-release-more-than-double-in-2021.html 

House Price Rises Accelerate

UK house prices accelerated in August, the Nationwide has said, with values now 13% higher than before the pandemic. The building society said that annual house price growth sped up, to 11%, with the average home costing £248,857. It said property prices recorded their second largest month-on-month rise in 15 years, up by 2.1%. The Nationwide said the increase was "surprising", given that the benefit from stamp duty holidays was reduced. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58399869 

House Sales Tumble In July After Stamp Duty Holiday Deadline

House sales tumbled by almost two-thirds in July after tens of thousands of homebuyers rushed to complete their purchases in order to beat the end-of-June stamp duty holiday deadline. Following a record surge in activity in June, when 213,370 UK homes changed hands, transactions slumped 62% to 82,110 in July according to official data, after the government scaled back its tax break for buyers in England and Northern Ireland. HM Revenue and Customs – which published the new data – said it showed that homebuyers were “completing property transactions earlier to take advantage of government housing market policies”. HMRC also said that following the changes to the rules, “an expected but noticeable decrease [in sales] has been observed”. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/aug/24/uk-house-sales-stamp-duty-holiday-deadline-tax-break

House Prices: Demand Changes, Not Tax Waiver, Pushed Prices Up

The current house prices boom was not caused by the stamp duty holiday, a new report has argued. The Resolution Foundation says prices will keep rising because of pandemic-related factors like low interest rates and changing home preferences. In fact, the think tank says the tax holiday was "wasteful" and HMRC lost out on about £4.4bn of taxes in England and Northern Ireland as a result. The Treasury said the policy saved jobs by stimulating the housing market. Between June 2020 and June 2021, the average value of a UK home increased 13.2%. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58274811 

Stamp Duty Land Tax – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to extend the stamp duty holiday; and if they do have such plans, what assessment they have made of the impact of an extension on the benefits to local economies.

Lord Agnew of Oulton: The Government does not plan to extend the SDLT holiday. The SDLT holiday was a temporary measure introduced in July 2020 to create immediate momentum in the property market, supporting jobs in the industry. The £500,000 threshold was stepped down to £250,000 on 1 July 2021 and will return to the normal level of £125,000 on 1 October 2021.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2021-07-20/HL2244 

House Prices Fall For First Time This Year

House prices have fallen for the first time this year, according to property website Rightmove. It said the average price of property coming to market in August fell 0.3%, a drop of £1,076, to £337,371. That was prompted by the ending of the stamp duty holiday and a subsequent fall in demand for bigger homes. "Average prices have only fallen in the upper-end sector," said Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property data. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58206513

Number Of Mortgage Sales With 35+ Year Terms Up 70%

New Freedom of Information (FOI) data from the FCA gathered by Quilter has revealed a sharp increase in the number of mortgage sales with a term of 35+ years at the beginning of 2021. In March of this year, 25,112 mortgages were sold with a term of 35+ years, a 70% increase compared with 14,765 in March 2019. In March 2018 14,683 were sold. For three years prior, at no point did sales surpass 20,000. The same FOI request revealed that March 2021 also saw the highest total number of mortgage sales for the past three years, likely due to the original stamp duty holiday deadline of 31st March. Read more on the Financial Reporter website.

https://www.financialreporter.co.uk/mortgages/number-of-mortgage-sales-with-35-year-terms-up-70.html

‘Frenzied Buyer Activity’ Drives UK House Prices To New High

Months of “frenzied buyer activity” have driven the average asking price for a home in Britain to a new high, according to the property website Rightmove. The property portal said it expected figures to show that June was the busiest month on record for sales, with buyers rushing to complete before stamp duty rules change in parts of the United Kingdom. On 30 June, a temporary tax break on the first £500,000 of the cost of a residential property in England and Northern Ireland began to be phased out, with the threshold cut to £250,000. Wales ended its temporary tax break entirely, while Scotland’s had finished at the end of March. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jul/19/frenzied-buyer-activity-drives-house-prices-to-new-high 

House Prices Rise By 10% Amid Stamp Duty Holiday Rush

UK house prices rose by 10% in the year to May, the fastest rate since before the 2008 financial crisis, as buyers scrambled to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday in some parts of the country. Data from the Office for National Statistics put the average price of a property at £254,624. The annual growth appears to have been driven by buyers’ desire for larger homes and outdoor space, and the stamp duty savings that were largest on homes in England and Northern Ireland priced at £500,000 and above. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jul/14/uk-house-prices-rise-by-10-amid-stamp-duty-holiday-rush 

House Prices Fell In June As Full Stamp Duty Holiday Ends

House prices fell last month for the first time since January in a sign that the overheating UK housing market is finally starting to cool, according to lender Halifax. Month-on-month, the price of the average home slipped by 0.5% in June to £260,358, a drop of £1,284 from £261,642 in May’s average. But on an annual basis, Halifax said property prices were still 8.8%, or about £21,000, higher than they were a year ago, with the strongest growth in Wales, Northern Ireland and north-west England. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jul/07/uk-house-prices-fell-in-june-as-full-stamp-duty-holiday-ended-says-halifax

Average UK House Price Falls For First Time In Months

The average price of a UK home fell 1.9 per cent between March and April but was still 8.9 per cent higher than it was in April 2020, according to HM Land Registry’s latest House Price Index. The index showed the average price of a property in April 2021 was £250,772, down from £255,707 the month before. Since at least May 2020, average house prices within the UK have increased incrementally. The increase in mortgage lending throughout March, itself boosted by the Stamp Duty holiday, to £35.6bn was thought to have boosted April’s sales, even though the average price fell. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/average-uk-house-price-falls-for-first-time-in-months/

Stamp Duty Holiday Helps Drive Up UK Property Prices

UK property prices are set to continue to rise after the gap between demand for homes and supply grew to its widest level since 2013, surveyors have reported. The latest monthly snapshot of the market from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed new listings had failed to keep up with the number of interested buyers in May, driving up prices across the UK. The group said that upwards pressure on prices had intensified for the fourth month running, with the stamp duty holiday in parts of the country one of the factors driving demand. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jun/10/stamp-duty-holiday-helps-drive-up-uk-property-prices