Friday News #065 – 10th July 2020
On Wednesday the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced a stamp duty holiday on the first £500,000 of a property’s value, coming into effect immediately running until March 2021 and applicable to all property sales. Investors and second home purchasers will still have to pay the additional surcharge but also benefit from the tax holiday.
With the saving currently available on UK property purchases, combined with historically low interest rates, we expect to see activity increase; our advice would be to not wait too long to take advantage of the possible saving and current climate. As we saw back in 2016 when the surcharge for additional dwellings was introduced, the huge rush towards the deadline meant purchases simply weren’t able to take place in time.
Here’s what we’ve seen in the news this week:
Stamp duty holiday: How will it work? The chancellor has announced a temporary holiday on stamp duty on the first £500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland. The tax threshold has been temporarily raised until next March to boost the property market and help buyers struggling because of the coronavirus crisis. The changes have come in with immediate effect. Read more from the BBC.
Stamp duty holiday may revive housing market, say experts: The suspension of stamp duty on property sales of up to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland will revive the housing market, according to industry experts, as buyers and sellers emerge from the coronavirus lockdown. The property website Rightmove said traffic to its listings increased by 22% immediately after the chancellor confirmed the £3.8bn tax break. Read more from The Guardian.
Rise in mortgage products ‘is a vote of confidence in the buy-to-let sector’: There has been a steady increase in the numbers of buy-to-let mortgage products since the start of May in a sign the market is starting to recuperate. Read more.
London rents dip but other areas flourish: The typical London rent has dipped by 1.7% to £1,583 per month. Other areas have fared better, as the North West saw rents increase by 6.6% between June 2019 and 2020. Read more.
2020 Q2 Review and Q3 Preview: This week we released an update which includes a review of Q2 2020 and preview of where our focus is going to be in Q3 moving forward. Read our update.
