Would you put your house on the market now or wait until next year?

[WhereWorthing]

For various family reasons we've been slower than we wanted to be getting our house ready to market. We'd aimed for spring this year but we're only really ready now. What are the pros and cons of getting it onto the market now or waiting until the new year?

Interesting @Didyousaysomethingdarling I wonder if stimulating the FTB market was Labour’s intention.

That’s a valid point actually.

I’ve just checked and stamp duty is only going to rise for second home buyers ?

A couple of weeks before the Easter bank holidays works far better.

The stamp duty thresholds are changing for everyone from March 2025:

At the moment, buyers of homes worth less than £250,000 don't pay stamp duty. This was doubled from £125,000 under Liz Truss's mini-Budget in September 2022.

The threshold is £425,000 for those buying their first property. This was raised from £300,000 as part of the mini-Budget.

These higher thresholds will end in March 2025, when they are expected to revert to previous levels.

£0-£250,000 (£425,000 for first-time buyers) = 0%
£250,001-£925,000 = 5%
£925,001-£1.5m = 10%
£1.5m+ = 12%

Threshold is going to reduce from £425,000 to £300,000 in April for FTB. We were going to soft market DM's house, the estate agents seem to think it won't be first time buyers who are the main market for it, but we are putting it on at £325k so now wondering if we do launch it now or whether the reasons for only having a soft market and launching it next year still stand.

“To take advantage of the current stamp duty rates, and save yourself on average £6,250 as a first-time buyer and £2,500 as a home mover, you’ll need to have completed on your property purchase by 1st April 2025. Whilst this date might seem quite far away, the average time to complete a house purchase in the UK is between 12 and 16 weeks and can take longer in certain circumstances. This means the latest you can start the conveyancing process will be before Christmas 2024!”

So if we want to upsize and buy our next house at say £475k, it would be £11,250 in stamp duty before 1st April 2025 or £13,750 from 1st April 2025.

Nah I would just put it on the market properly now

Depends - loads of sold signs and very few for sale signs round here! Things go very quickly.

How much more would the duty be in April for a house around £800,000? I am quite confused .

You can use a stamp duty calculator to work it out

www.stampdutycalculator.org.uk/

That’s for the current rates though

No it isn’t it tells you both.
I’ll work it out for you if you answer are you in England & are you a first time buyer?

Apologies @HeyDougie I think I linked the wrong calculator, let me find the one I meant to link

www.calculatesomething.com/stamp-duty/

£27,500 now, £30,000 from April

Totally area dependent, but as a general rule January is a good time as apparently lots of people browse over Christmas when they are off work, plus there is an increase in relationship breakdowns from people who have stuck it out until after Christmas for the kids, or the pressures of being home with family tensions over the festive period drive them to move forward!

If you are upsizing a lot of older people are tied to the sell in the spring tradition so you may want to hold off until the new year then secure a sale on your house so you are ready for.the potential increase in properties in the spring

We have tried to sell recently but not much interest. Everything else locally seems to be the same, most properties for sale for 6 months or more. There’s nothing we want to view at the moment either so we may as well wait until next year. Our house is
a small first time buy type of house though, so I would would have thought the buyers who would be interested would be looking to buy now before the FTB stamp duty increase as it affects them more than it will affect us

Oh no it was the right one actually. If you put 800,000 in as the amount it tells you the amount payable both now and from April 1st.

As @arinya says the difference is 2.5k assuming you are a FTB in England or Northern Ireland.

The difference in price is much bigger on cheaper properties. On a 500k property for example, a FTB would pay £3,750 now but 10k from April 1st.

My friend has just had an offer accepted on a place that went on the market last week.

I know someone who sold within days and has bought a property she is moving to early Dec . It all happened really quickly.

There is also a risk of over paying by thousands to seal the deal and save much less on the stamp duty. Better to wait and buy the right house regardless of the SDLT changes.

I wouldn't want viewers traipsing round the house over Xmas. I'd personally want to wail til the new year. Don't really see the point of waiting til Easter though .

Martin Lewis explains the stamp duty changes here:
x.com/MartinSLewis/status/1852389999817150771?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1852389999817150771%7Ctwgr%5E52c5a10e0a445790ea1423e3816e002bc9597487%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dosbods.co.uk%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcoremodule%3Dsystemcontroller%3Dembedurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2FMartinSLewis%2Fstatus%2F1852389999817150771