Stamp Duty

I wish! We have been trying to sell our much too big for us house for over two years. The house we have wanted to buy for most of that time went to someone else last week. Now, even if we get an offer as a result of the stamp duty holiday, we have nowhere in mind to buy. Our needs are quite specific and we've looked at lots of houses and there is nothing else around that meets them. Depressing.

cycnical me, won't a lot of sellers just put their prices up a bit

We moved from Brighton to Devon 18 months ago for several reasons at the time, bought a beautiful house that we would of paid at least £200k more for in Sussex, but we miss our family terribly and our family miss us and find the 5 hour drive monotonous and expensive plus it left my DS with no babysitter, also it has brought it home to us moving from a bungalow to a chalet bungalow and my health has gone downhill since being here that we made a wrong move to a house with stairs so this is definitely the incentive we need to move back to sussex. We appreciate the prices are a lot more expensive but we will just have to swallow it so saving stamp duty at least should help our plight a little at least! I just dread the actual packing up and moving, more so now as I have extra health problems but at least once back near family I will have more help hopefully.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gillybob

Yeah . I’m seriously considering spending a cool half million £ to save myself about £15k.......not . Infact you couldn’t even find a house worth £500k in my town ....or even £300k for that matter.

Is that man for real ?

I have a really lovely house which will be going on the market for just over £300k. It is a 2 bed semi in a development on the outside of town on the borders of Surrey/West Sussex. It is known as the best area to live around these parts.
If, as you say, I had £500k to spend I would be buying a 4 bedroom/2 bathroom detached maybe with double garage.
As a retired public worker I can only dream......
The savings in Stamp Duty would be good for me.

My d in l has just been made redundant while on furlough. She can’t look for another job as ds is back working and child care facilities still closed. Faces prospect of losing their very modest ex local authority house as she had the better job. Her comment was if they can afford a £500000 house they can afford stamp duty.

Our house has been on the market since last September. We received a number of offers that were too low as we want to return to the south of England from the Midlands. Just before lockdown we received two full price offers. One couple wanted to move in on August 1st which we couldn’t accommodate. We were and still are self isolating so no visits to areas and no viewings. No viewings for our house either. The second couple have now said that due to lockdown they have lost money and are now having to look for a cheaper property.
A few days ago I did our first remote viewing via WhatsApp but the viewers said that they are self isolating so it won’t proceed. We are seriously thinking of removing our property from the market until such times as we can safely travel and view properties. My husband has no intention of going anywhere at all. Many more people must be in this position I would think.

Ooh, bad timing. I've been thinking of downsizing for some time (not to make a profit - 2 bed bungalows are not much cheaper than 4 bed houses here). When I heard the news the other day I thought, 'now's our chance'. But my DH is due to go into hospital for an op soon. Not sure how long recovery will take - might not be the best time for the stresses and strains of a house move.

This 500k is being bandied about a lot

Houses over 500K will still be paying Stamp Duty. It's UNDER 500 that will benefit.

My daughter and husband have been thinking of selling as the boys are needing more space

This is definitely good news for them

Their home won't be costing anywhere near 500k either!

We already had put our house on the market just before lockdown. Anyway we have had an offer for the full asking price a couple of weeks ago and this reduction in stamp duty would have been great. However my husband is very poorly and when we received the offer he realised he wasn’t up to moving much to my bitter disappointment, but his wellbeing is more important so regretfully we declined the offer. It would have been great for us the saving could have been spent on making whatever property we bought how we wanted it to be. Oh well things happen for a reason so they say

I'm treading cautiously here. 2 sons both started house selling/buying process last October because both had seen their ideal homes, each at around £600k. There were long drawn-out for them both, and none of their own making, so it was very frustrating for them. They were both in short chains and hung onto their own buyers, by nothing short of a miracle. One eventually moved 3 weeks ago, paying stamp duty. The other will hopefully complete next week and will not pay stamp duty! Hence my treading carefully!!

My son and gf are buying a first home, it was already free of stamp duty up to £300,000. They are spending a bit more than this and it'll save them just £2k. It's not enough to make someone decide to buy when they werent already planning to do so. New carpets type of money, very welcome, and will possibly give them a bit more to put back into the general economy if all goes well. The place needs renovation, so the grants towards heating and insulation will probably help more. We were also planning to move, having sold up a year ago to downsize, it'll save us a lot of money as you can't get much round here under £800K but I think the saving will soon disappear in rising prices. We've already been outbid after offering well over the asking price for a flat - anyone remember how London prices surged after they announced in advance they were going to scrap MIRAS?

And I should add, as nurses in the 1970's we could buy a house in a good part of West London, a short walk to work!

There already is no stamp duty on houses up to £300,000 so those who benefit will be in the £300,000 to £500,000 range so probably most benefit to next home or downsizers. From what I’ve read the idea is that those moving into a new home will spend the money they have saved on stamp duty on furniture and furnishings thus boosting those companies and the economy.

It really is good news for everybody moving house, but it goes beyond that. It means people can employ tradesmen to do up the property they buy thus giving work to those who may have been unemployed.

I dared to count up our house moves yesterday, 14 in total. I dread to think how much we have paid in stamp duty every few years. It has never been anything I have allowed to sway my decisions, but I appreciate for some it is a big factor.

I have sympathy for those of you who can't move at the moment due to other reasons.

X post Avalon

It's amazing how house prices in London have changed. I met some old friends the other day (both teachers) who live in Islington. They bought their house 40 plus years ago when they were both starting out in teaching. The area has gone up and their house is now worth several million. They are surrounded by media luvvies and politicians and no way could they have afforded to buy that house now.

gillybob

TerriBull

Sorry Gillybob not intending to rub salt into wounds, I know there is an enormous disparity in house prices as to the different areas around the country. Where I live you can't get a 1 bedroomed flat for less than about £320,000

Obviously with the wages to match Terribull . Cheaper houses here, but some of the lowest wages in the country.

You would like to think that dearer houses equals higher wages - but it doesn't. There is a proportion of high earners from the city and surrounds but the rest of us earn no more or barely more than the lower house price areas. Not only that but the cost of living is also higher. Higher priced houses means higher council tax ( or whatever it is called now!)

My DD and SiL had planned to move this year. They had just finished main Structural renovations and were just about to have carpets fitted when lockdown came. ( still bare boards with small children eeek). I think this will spur them on to get things finished and get it on the market for beginning of next year. They need more space and will be selling a 3 bed ‘starter home’. There next house will probably be in the 320-350k price bracket so they will definitely benefit from a few thousand. We’ve been toying with downsizing ( our property went on the market about 7 yrs ago but then things changed. ) Now both heading towards retirement I’m very tempted.

I would dearly love to move house ! Moved here 30 years ago with my now ex. My three children are now grown up and live between 150 and 300 miles away. I would so like to move nearer to them. But my nonagenarian parents live 100 miles from me and as they are needing more and more input I feel really stuck. I have a couple of good friends here but not a huge network and I have two part time jobs - at 59 I don’t know if I’d get another job in this day and age. I feel like I’m wasting my time and achieving nothing in my life atm.

Avalon, =not quite true, that stamp duty starts at £300,00 That is only for first time buyers. For everyone else stamp duty starts at £125,00. I paid it last year when I purchased my flat for £190,000.

The people who purchased my house in London would have paid out a lot in stamp duty.

Just a 'Heads Up' for anyone on here talking about putting/have put their properties on the market and in the process of selling and buying - why not join us on the specific thread for this )which is now in its sixth thread)

Rumpunch I'm not sure about higher priced houses equating to higher council tax in the country as a whole as it depends on the rating bands in a particular council area.
Yes, the council tax on more expensive properties in any area is in a higher band.

I can't speak for gillybob but I'm sure she has posted previously about relatively high council tax in her area.
Whereas Westminster, with a proportion of very expensive housing, has a low rate of council tax.

There may be a shortage of buyers due to many still on furlough or having been made redundant. And of course there may be a bit of a temptation for prices to increase given the tax holiday. I won't be moving.

I stand corrected Franbern. I don’t usually believe what I read without checking first. Just looked up Gov.uk and I see there is normally a sliding scale.

Main point was that they are hoping the money saved on stamp duty will be used to buy things for the new home which TBH people usually do anyway.

I am in the process of getting back on the ladder but unfortunately I will not qualify for SDLT exemption in full as my name is still on the deeds of the matrimonial home, so I have to pay the surcharge rate of 3% of the full price which is a hefty chunk of money. I've had to get an interest only mortgage to buy a new home
in need of renovation to get something affordable while the divorce is sorted out but I think it is better than continuing to rent on a small flat. The interest only mortgage is a bit less than the rent I have been paying, and at least the new place will be my home and I will have a garden again. I may be lucky in that I could get a refund of the SDLT if my husband agrees to sell matrimonial home within two years. Unfortunately he can't afford to buy out my share, I wish he could as it would make my life easier as I would not have to pay a mortgage on my new place if I had the cash. Hopefully though, the temporary SDLT will incentivise my husband to sell and buy something for himself. So it could be welcome good news after a period of hardship. Fingers crossed