The Latest Updates From The Property Market

There is no better time to check out what’s happening in the property market business with the extension of stamp duty holiday until the end of June.

Ever since Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the stamp duty holiday extension, as part of the new measures detailed in the Spring Budget, the property market has been taken up by storm.

Indeed the demand for properties has never been higher!

With especially first time buyers trying to become homeowners, prices have been soaring, despite the challenges that the covid-19 pandemic posed on economic growth.

The market is busier than ever and there is concern about property transactions taking longer than usual and exceed the stamp duty holiday deadline.

OneDome, one of the main property portals, reports that around 74% of real estate agents in the UK stated that the speed of the transaction is their main concern, followed by a lack of control on the market’s fluctuation.

This situation resulted in a petition online calling for the stamp duty holiday to be triggered upon exchange of contracts and not completion. This would be helpful because there would be a legal bound as soon as the contract was stipulated. This petition is unifying a broad range of categories: homebuyers, real estate agents, sellers and lenders being some of them.

This is why now it’s the time not only to start looking into it as quickly as possible but it’s also the perfect time for real estate agents to get up to date with the home staging world so that this ever growing demand can be matched by the fastest sales.

Another concern prompted by the extension of this holiday is pricing. There has been a re-acceleration in April and it is supposed to continue growing over the summer. One of the main reasons is that a lot of people are looking into moving to smaller cities with more outdoor spaces. This can be definitely traced back to the lockdown situation that has made more and more people want to leave bigger cities for quieter and bigger spaces.

Nevertheless even among the real estate community there are discordant voices.

As Estate Agents Today reports, prominent people of the industry can’t seem to agree on the situation, leading through an even more confusing situation for the market.

Jeremy Leaf, from the London based real estate agency Jeremy Leaf & Co., is confident that the economic growth that we will see now that lockdown is over, the vaccine rollout has been successful so far and that there’s more attention than ever in the housing market, will make a positive impact on the industry:

“The bounce-back highlighted by the Nationwide figures, which we have also seen on the ground, should be sufficient to ensure there is no price correction when the stamp duty holiday starts to taper off at the end of June. Continuing shortage of stock, as well as the new government-backed 95 per cent mortgage and furlough support, are providing further assistance for the market. Broader rollout of the vaccine and easing of lockdown restrictions is increasing confidence in the economy. This economic recovery is giving an additional boost to housing market activity rather than the housing market supporting the economy, which was the case when the pandemic first struck.”

On the other hand PropTech entrepreneur Anthony Codling, from Twindig, isn’t that hopeful regarding the increasing  demand of houses and subsequent price surge:

“Over the last 12 months average house prices have increased by £15,916, almost £1,000 bigger than the maximum stamp duty saving. The Stamp Duty holiday extension certainly avoided a cliff edge, but is it building an even bigger cliff?”

We can only pay attention to the latest developments and make sure that you’re also kept on the loop on this year’s stamp duty holiday!