The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has confirmed the extension of the Stamp Duty Holiday until 30 June.
The scheme was due to come to an end on 31 March but now there will be a tapered extension until 30 September.
Matthew Tooth, chief commercial officer at LendInvest, said: “It is welcome news to see the Stamp Duty Land tax deadline extended in the Chancellor’s Spring budget today. This extension will not only alleviate a lot of the mounting pressure that is currently on lenders, but also conveyancers, intermediaries and other professionals involved in property transactions.
“Since the initial announcement of the Stamp Duty holiday, the housing market has been booming with a record volume of deals, which has certainly been felt at LendInvest. This extension will provide ample fuel for this to continue, as the country navigates its way out of a pandemic triggered recession.
“We can expect this decision to have a positive effect on house prices. Last year we saw a six-year high for residential price growth at 7%, partly driven by the first Stamp Duty holiday implementation by the Chancellor. Whilst previous analyst expectations for 2021 predicted stable growth of between 1% – 1.5%, combined with the highly successful vaccination drive in the UK, we can now expect higher growth for the market over the next quarter.”
Ross Counsell, chartered surveyor and director at GoodMove, added: “Stamp Duty has been paused since July 2020, and it can certainly be said that it has had a positive impact on the housing market this past year. Along with demand for properties shifting from proximity to cities to spacious properties in more rural locations, the promise of not paying the often-hefty Stamp Duty has left people rushing to buy a new property to take advantage of it while they can.
“In fact, according to recent data from the Centre for Policy Studies, the Stamp Duty holiday has increased the number of property sales by 140%; from 132,090 in pre-Stamp Duty Holiday (between April and June) to 316,300 in the final quarter of 2020. This marks the highest increase in sales since 2007.”