Stamp Duty holiday to be extended by three months...

[joeysapple]

Good news for some.

news.sky.com/story/amp/stamp-duty-holiday-to-be-extended-until-end-of-june-as-think-tank-calls-for-the-tax-to-be-scrapped-altogether-12227369

My house was due to be complete in May, builders now saying June but will only commit in writing to "Summer". Wondering if I can get them to pay my stamp duty if I miss out on this new extension!

I came here to see if there were any threads about this! We have accepted an offer on ours and hoping an offer will be accepted on the house we want within the next 24 hours. Would be excellent if we could make the deadline!

Our house move is massively dragging so this would be a huge help!

We’re also really hoping to hit this. Waiting on news from the lady we’re buying off re her emigration to the US which was paused last year due to covid but apparently is starting to move again 🙏🏼

I am so happy about this. My partner and I only decided to buy at the beginning of this month when a house that we loved came up. We didn't think we would make the original deadline but as we had no chain on either side we were a tiny bit hopeful. Now we can relax, £17 000 saved

I think this is insane. We need all the tax we can get at the moment and this populist government are artificially boosting house prices!

It's good for people who are currently in complicated chains, but it would have been good if they'd given a bit more notice - I imagine many people will have made decisions based on the March deadline.

It's not official yet! And it may not be a straight extension but tapered, may only be for those who have exchanged but not completed...
And @BusinessGoose the max you can save is £15,000 as far as I understand it.

Not official but seems to be being pretty widely reported as a done deal.

I can't see how only allowing the relief for people who have exchanged but not completed would be beneficial. Once you've exchanged you're essentially ready to go. The idea was to help people whose transactions have been held up due to the large volumes, so searches, mortgage offers, solicitor enquiries etc taking longer.

Many people exchange and complete on the same day.

No- one should start a purchase now thinking they are going to get done within the stamp duty extended window. Its just not realistic. I started my straightforward purchase in november and am still nowhere near completion. Everything is super slow at the moment.

What @SausagePourHomme said.

No guarantee even if you start the process now that you'll make the next deadline. No set rules on how long the process takes. Budget as though you will have to pay SDLT and if you don't, it's a bonus.

It’s just funny.

People will try and start the process on 9th March and get annoyed when they haven’t completed by June or whenever. “This is going to cost me X.., we wouldn’t have paid 20k over the asking price”