^The property market in this country has always been ‘unique’ but this is now plain batsh*t mental.
I don’t think the aim of the SDLT holiday was to encourage guest time buyers, more to get the housing market moving again along with all the additional businesses who benefit from this.
They includes everything from solicitors and estate agents right accords the board to decorators and gardeners.
Whenever someone buys a new home, they will almost invariably spend a large chunk of money on making it their home. They also includes new build properties. So for each £15k list in SDLT, the government would eclectic to see a far greater return in VAT, tax and NI contributions.
There are other schemes designed to help first time buyers, this isn’t one of them.
The issue for an government is that it produces around £10bn a year in revenue. So if you removed it you would need to replace that with some other form of taxation (assuming you wished government expenditure to remain at the same level). Given the amount of support during COVID I don't think it will be going anytime soon
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Yes, you’re right of course. It’s just that housing isn’t used efficiently because, for example, people wanting to downsize when their children leave home are faced with 2 lots of legal fees plus SDLT plus removal costs. So they don’t bother and there’s one less 4 bed house available for a family!
I see it more of: “You are making money out of buying and selling houses - we (HMG) want a slice of that”
Now, While I am not a fan of that - what would the housing market be like without it? Only solicitor’s fees to figure?
Sure - a lot of movement and trickle down to other industries/businesses, but I can’t help but think that the short term would be no owned housing for the young, and long term - stagnation due to that.
The government, developers and banks make lots of money. Sold houses with inflated prices enable care homes to be paid for. Kids don’t vote until they’re on the housing ladder and then it’s I’m alright Jack my house is worth loads I’ll vote Tory.
True - first time buyers claim to ‘just’ to want to afford a house..............
but when pressed- you find out that yes, they do want somewhere to live, but to a huge extent - want a place with great investment potential.
While decrying those who went before - with the same outlook
You may be correct but when we sold our previous house - a 3 bed cottage in the countryside, we had plenty of viewings from "downsizers". None of them made an offer with comments such as great location but hasn't got a farmhouse size kitchen and / or the living room isn't as big as we had hoped.
Our agent said he despaired of most downsizers; they wanted the big kitchen and living room like their current home but obviously didn't need 4 /5 bedrooms. The problem is a footprint required to give a big kitchen etc usually comes with 4/5 bedrooms
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I mentioned before in the thread I photograph property for a local estate agent, the last two owners I had a chat with were both in their later years and both said Covid has made them think about life, they wanted to be closer to their children in other parts of the country so were selling up, nothing to do with stamp duty/money!
This is for one agent in a small town, I imagine this is repeated much more in the cities across the UK, also I know most conveyancing solicitors are maxed out with work, on top of that the estate agent I work for said it is the best selling market he has ever been involved in..
I just had a check on Rightmove and for our area there are no properties for sale within 3 miles - we are relatively rural - over £500k with 10 listed as SSTC
If that continues it will have a knock on effect pretty soon as there won't be any chains to make
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I don’t get it really - I suspect a lot of people planning to move to the countryside will be in for a shock when the office in London decides to re-open 3 days a week, they realise there’s no such thing as just eat or Uber, their nearest Mongolian BBQ is the one they used to frequent in London, and their mobile signal/broadband is patchy at best :)
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Since November 17 first time buyers pay no SDLT on the first £300k of a purchase - that was rolled out in recognition of how difficult it had become to get on the property ladder. This dopey idea of general SDLT relief has essentially smashed each and every first time buyer as they go from having a competitive advantage (intention of original relief) to having to compete with a stampede of existing owners looking to trade up / down in what can only be described as a feeding frenzy.
For an existing owner staying invested, it's a simple spread game, so if you have to pay 15% more than last year for your new property but get 15% more on what you sell, the margin has not changed by much. Ultimately those exiting the market will do great, those entering (first time buyers) are being saddled with high debt through frankly excessive prices.
I've said it before and will say it again - Sunak royally screwed up on this policy. I don't see any immediate significant falls either now as the smart money is on the next base rate increase being Q1 2023 and then to only 0.25%. By then there will be even more people carrying mortgage debt well beyond their true means. Prices should at least stabilise beyond June as the relief starts to taper and more people learn they don't have a job once the support packages are withdrawn too.
All of which confirms my point that the SDLT holiday was not in any way aimed at making it easier for fist time buyers.
Two of my daughters have recently bought their first homes, one paying £315k within the holiday window and the other £305k before the holiday. So between them, they paid a total of £250 SDLT.
I moved house in summer 2020 and was lucky enough to benefit from the stamp duty holiday, saving £15k (the purchase was well under way before the announcement).
When the first lockdown was lifted there was a huge jump in demand for properties, before the stamp duty cut was announced. I don’t think they needed to do the reduction and the market would have remained buoyant anyway.
Last edited by Owren; 11th June 2021 at 09:45. Reason: spelling
Notable slowdown in properties coming onto the market. Not expecting any great fireworks, but I suspect things will at least be static for a while now that it's too late to come to the SDLT savings party and that will probably signal the end of some of the silly bidding wars with people queuing outside a house to be next in line to view...
Who saw this one coming?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57464534
I rented in London from 2000-2013, I lived in 1 or 2 bad flats from budget to somewhat premium.
At no point have I ever paid more rent that the interest on the same property would be if I bought it.
I only bought because I had particular needs that were hard to find on the rental market.
It matters if you buy with a 17% deposit and after your initial term you now have 20% equity that puts you into a different rate which can reduce the mortgage by quite a bit and gives you more options with lenders.
Remortgaging won't always mean releasing equity. Can just mean getting a better rate.
I understand that but sooner or later that money is yours (or the beneficiaries of your estate) rather than the landlords? Hard to divorce the 2 given one means you have an asset while the other doesn't.
Agreed (unless the value of your property declines). The crux of it is, in the middle of a pandemic, business struggling, house prices have shot up to levels where the rhetoric of mortgaged vs rented has switched, part of which has been prompted by the SDLT holiday
They're not mutually exclusive but it does fall back to an individuals perspective, is where you live an investment or a basic need (or both as the case may be).
Many will be forced to rent as they simply won't pass the financial tests for the mortgage they need, despite having sufficient disposable income to service the debt because interest rates are so low. A sad situation, but I'm glad the financial tests are being applied as it will equally save many down the line when rates inevitably increase at a level that far outstrips wage growth and suddenly the mortgage payment becomes unaffordable.
I think rents will start to edge back up as many BTL investors have taken the opportunity of a strong market to sell to owner occupiers, so increased demand and diminishing supply should push rents up.
Property prices in Chelmsford and Suffolk have gone up considerably over the last 18
months and no signs of slowing down as people exit London for greener spaces and bigger properties. A lack of needing to be in London and close to work for 5 days a week is having a significant impact. Our surveyor said houses are selling for over listed prices and estate agents are having to put ‘offers in excess of xxx’. We just went through a remortgage and our house value has increased by 10% in two years. I am very glad that we bought our first house 2 years ago or like many have said we would be struggling to get a house we would want where we live.
I feel sorry for people looking to get on the property ladder as it was already hard and now it’s even harder.
Stu
Hardly a dent in prices - personally i think prices are going to remain buoyant as long as low rate mortgages are available.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57746662
Q1 2022 will be a good place in time to see how the market is performing as SDLT will have returned back to normal, and furlough schemes will have ended by then.
Edinburgh has gone nuts!
Decent property is going for 25 to 35% over asking price. We know a couple of families trying to buy right now and they're becoming ever more disheartened by constantly missing out on properties. Their budgets mean their aims for decent areas and schools are having to be lowered as never before. Small house a few doors from us was up for a price we thought utterly ridiculous and sold for £205k over that!!
I put my house up Monday - 8 viewings yesterday and 4 firm offer that I’m happy to accept
Didn’t envisage it being that swift
I've had an offer of 100k over asking accepted last week. Now hoping something similar happens to my house.
The house I bought was up for 2 weeks and had many offers. I had to pay a little premium as not chain free.
Yes, need to sell. I could make it work (via BTL mortgage on current place) and be chain free, but I don't like taking that risk.
Agent has two buyers requesting a viewing of my place and we haven't even instructed him yet - or taken the photos.
Our neighbours sold recently after an agent knocked their door saying they have a buyer, the house then went on rightmove as sold STC and they had people knocking on the door with bigger offers.
So unless the market has died completely in a month then we should sell quickly. I don't need top dollar, but do need a quick completion.
People are shifting their priorities but it’s not all a massive exodus to the countryside, people will still want to move into a small flat because they are in a share and want a place of their own.
Me and my partner could have both sold and consolidated into a house in the countryside but we both like London and what it offers and are not ready for lawn mowers and wisteria round the door just yet.
Neither of us is office bound 5 days a week so have decided to get a bigger 2 bed flat and keep mine as a rental, priority being views of trees/cityscape, space for a desk that’s a nice place to work in.
Thankfully those kind of places don’t seem to have seen stupid price rises over the last year though there’s a few that are trying it on! Those are the ones where the pics have brown leaves on the trees, if it was priced right it still wouldn’t be on the market 9 months later...
I am currently selling my mums house it has only been on the market for 3 days already had 7000 views on rightmove it’s got 17 viewings and we are getting offers 35k over asking is this normal at the moment ?
Yep. Someone not too far up the thread has offered 100k over asking on something but I won't hazard a guess on the percentages.
Make sure you have proof of funds before accepting any offer. Your agent should call through any chain to verify and see proof of deposit to double check LTV.
With things this good for sellers I wouldn't waste time with a buyer that only has 10% or isn't fully proceedable.
I bought in April and had to show my mortgage agreement and every penny in every account to the agent.
Just sold my holiday house for 45k over asking, never expected it to be fair but welcome none the less.
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Signing the missives within a week is a thing of the past in Scotland now.
It’s left till the last minute the same as the English system and the buyer can pretty much pull out anytime until they are signed.
Ridiculous
Gone are the days when an offer was accepted that was it pretty much done and dusted.
Me and the Mrs are first time buyers.
We’ve worked hard and have saved up a very respectable deposit.
We’ve looked at maybe 20 houses this year, put offers in on the ones we liked and missed out on every single one.
Each one has sold for 10-20% over asking.
Absolute madness! We’re continuing to save and are going to wait this out, it can’t be sustainable for houses to be selling way over what they’re worth.
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However frustrating it must seem. I would also agree with you. I think there will be some levelling out and fall back in the market within the next 6 months.
The problem with house prices is that a house is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it and at the current time demand is exceeding supply thus driving up prices.
I was speaking with a local agent last week and asked if he thought there would be some correction now effectively the stamp duty holiday is over. He said not for a while in his view as he had very little new property for sale but still a number of cash buyers who were in rented. These people had sold as the market rose and until they had washed through would still be supporting the market
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I said above a few months ago, the estate agent I photograph for is taking way over asking for good property and still is, the emphasis is the word good, a lot comes down to area, access and parking, condition don’t seem to be considered as much as it was, just get the right house in the right location and we can make it our own seems the train of thought.
If I never had a classic car in the garage in bits I would be tempted to sell my mine to take advantage of this FOMO situation..
Also many articles like the one linked below state house prices will still rise after the stamp duty free period ends. Price rises won’t be as sharp but they will still rise. As always it’s supply and demand. I feel for first time buyers. The market had always been pants bit the current state is far from ideal.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.t...y-holiday-rush
Sold my family house last week on 1st day - 8 viewings and 4 offers - accepted £7k over the offers above asking - nice buyers and an easy sale (hopefully )
I already have another property and my ex wife has somewhere to go (apparently)
The only problem of FOMO is that anything you buy will have also increased in value....unless you downsize but as you are obviously into your cars, that seems unlikely.
Unless you can find a large garage with bedrooms above !!!!
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