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First-time Buyer

Homebuyers make £5,000 stamp duty saving

Samantha Partington
Written By:
Samantha Partington
Posted:
Updated:
30/06/2021

Homebuyers completing house purchases before the end of the stamp duty holiday have saved on average £5,000, analysis revealed.

Data from Moneysupermarket suggested buyers in Liverpool benefitted the most from Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision to raise the stamp duty threshold to £500,000 until 30 June, making an average saving of £8,167.

Londoners and Edinburgh buyers were next in line to bag the biggest savings with £7,410 and £7,100 wiped off their stamp duty bills respectively. Buyers in Belfast and Leicester saved the least.

Around 1.3m buyers have taken advantage of the stamp duty holiday and only a small minority of house hunters are expected to abandon plans if they miss the upcoming deadline, according to Rightmove.

From 1 July, the nil-rate threshold drops down from £500,000 to £250,000 and first-time buyer relief is reinstated. After 30 September the threshold drops to its pre-holiday level of £125,000.

Despite the rush to complete purchases before 30 June, around of third of buyers say they are expecting to take advantage of the deadline ending 30 September.

The chance to save up to £15,000 in stamp duty also sparked a selling frenzy as 57 per cent of homeowners who put their homes on the market did so because of the temporary tax relief.

Since the introduction of the stamp duty holiday in July 2020, more than 170,000 extra transactions have taken place than would be expected in a normal 12-month period, analysis by Search Acumen found.

And as demand from homemovers outweighed the supply of new homes, average asking prices have been driven up by £16,000 to £320,265 over the last 12 months.

Jo Thornhill, mortgages expert at Moneysupermarket, said: “The stamp duty holiday has been hugely popular with buyers and it’s clear from our research why that’s the case: average savings of £5k can make a huge difference when you’re buying a property, giving you the flexibility to spend that money on other cost items like solicitors fees, general moving bills or even new furnishings.”