Stamp Duty

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.

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!

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?

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!!

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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.

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

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.

sorry, would have been.

AS I heard on the radio today people are quite likely to raise the price of the property to include the amount the stamp duty who'd have been.

Scotland has now announced it’s version of a cut in stamp duty.

Terribull I've just been looking at houses for sale where we used to live and am astonished at some of the prices!
We thought of moving within that locality and one we had our eye on (underpriced, I think, but just affordable as a doer-upper all those years ago) would now be well over £1m!

I don’t think there’s a Stamp Duty holiday in Scotland (It’s called something else here) but it would make me consider moving if there was.

We are in the middle of buying/selling. Our builder had included paying the stamp duty on our behalf in the 'deal' so we are wondering if that will transalet into something else - reduced asking price - dont know but doubt it.

Yes I think it's an incentive.

I know what you mean Callistemon, our old house, a mile or so away, came on the market a couple of years ago and we definitely couldn't afford it now, although have to say it wasn't the house we'd left, they'd extended it all over the place. We have been toying with the idea of moving out a few miles, have spent a lot of time visiting various towns to imagine what it would be like living there, of course how any of them weather these terrible times remains to be seen.

I didn't intend to make this thread about a north/south divide, salaries aren't always commensurate with over inflated house prices. My son and girlfriend had to go 40 miles or so outside the capital to buy a house, and then of course there is the extortionate cost of commuting in every day, prior to working from home right now, which won't last for ever. The cost of their rail journeys are something in the region of over £4,000 plus per annum each.

Elliane thanks for the heads up about the other thread, I'd definitely be over there if we set the ball rolling, but have to say still thinking about it. I'm so much better at thinking about changes than implementing them though.

There really are more than just public sector workers who need to buy homes you know. I know that might sound odd but its true.

A "nurse couple" each on £27k would be positively well off here in my part of the NE River and could buy a very nice house indeed.

Fair point about London house prices but not sure how it could ever change .

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

Which is why we could afford a larger house when we moved away - but could not afford to buy our old house back again.

I’m in the process of looking for a new home at it would save me a lot of money, problem is finding something suitable I can afford here in NWLondon, it’s no easy task.

Hopefully it will allow some first time buyers to Save some of the expense and be able to afford a home. I expect the new build houses will be popular with them because the negotiations can be very quick.