Do you think the stamp duty break will mean houses sell over this winter?

[Iamtooknackeredtorun]

I am thinking of selling my property and buying a new home to take advantage of the stamp duty exemption. Ordinarily I think nov-feb is pretty slow and people suggest waiting til spring. I am thinking, however, that this winter will be different and regardless of Christmas etc people will still be looking for property before the deadline.

Am I deluded?

I don’t think you are deluded. The stamp duty holiday ends in March 21 so I would have thought the winter period will be very busy this year...

This is my hope! Thanks

Unless there is another lockdown of course

I'm not sure...we sold last month and now we're waiting for everything to go through, searches etc. Are very slow at the moment. I think that soon people might begin to worry about running out of time. I'm already panicking about school deadlines, which are a little earlier.

People always say winter is slow, but we’ve sold twice in December and bought once in November.
Over the Christmas holiday Rightmove has maximum hits, as people are at home.
In the summer(usually) people are way on holiday.

It will be busy. Like when there was a temporary not SDLT for first time buyers under £250,000.

I'm hoping to sell and buy again before it ends. the stamp duty holiday is particularly good if you own another property because with the second home surcharge it'll now be 3% not 8%.

We've just gone the market to sell on a week ago and the market seems fairly busy but viewings are more spread over week than focussed on Saturdays.

Some are selling very quickly - within 2 weeks, there's some there for ever and some are reducing. I think everyone's trying to get things through but delays on surveyors, searches in some areas, solicitors are very busy. Our main concern at the moment is another lockdown when surveyors can't visit a property. Also would prefer an offer from someone with a good deposit and nothing to sell as chains / low deposits are riskier than normal at the moment.

By us people seem to be keeping houses on market after offer agreed when an offer from anyone with a chain which is unusual, maybe due to surveyor delays.

You've just said yourself you're thinking of moving to make the most of the SDT break, plenty others will be thinking the same too.

@MinnieMountain was that temporary? I thought first time buyers still didn't have to pay SDT?

I agree with a pp as well that I wouldn't leave it too long, the process is taking longer than normal atm and it won't matter what stage you are at on or after 1/4/21 if you don't complete by the end of March you will pay SDT.

@notheragain4 they don't up to £300,000 but that only came in in 2017.

I can't find the date but the £250,000 FTB SDLT holiday was around 2010. But only up to 31st December.

It depends whether they extend the stamp duty holiday beyond March and what they do about first time buyers. Becsuse a lot of thdm of them weren't paying stamp duty even before March. And of course banks and how much deposit will be required. It's really hard to work out what to do for the best.

Thanks everyone. Some very sensible observations not least the delays in surveys/searches which will only get worse as we get closer to March.

We went on the market last Friday and sold yesterday 👍🏼

We went up for sale the day the Stamp Duty holiday was announced. Sold within 10 days and are still trundling through the process - buyers' survey isn't booked for another three weeks (first available date when they booked).

Everything is slow and is only likely to get slower if/when local or second lockdown comes in. If you want to do it go now. TBH if it wasn't for the £15k we were saving I'd have given up by now but it's totally worth the hassle.

Good luck!

You've still got plenty of time to sell inside the stamp holiday.

The main issue which may cause sales to dry up is the current credit crunch on mortgages for first-time buyers. Alot of lenders now require a 20% deposit which will take a whole bunch of first time buyers out of the market.