Following the SDLT holiday announcement last week, there has been a surge in sales of high valued property, as people are set to make big savings.
Analysis conducted by property portal Rightmove, has made comparisons between home-hunters enquiring about properties both the week before the announcement and the week after.
They saw that the biggest jump in buyer demand was in the £400,000 to £500,000 price band where stamp duty is now exempt until 31st March 2021, up 49%, followed by the £500,001 to £750,000 band where buyers will save £15,000, up 40%.
In contrast, homes priced at £300,000 or under saw a muted increase of just 1% and the overall uplift across all property was 14%.
The number of sales agreed by sector shows that the higher end of the property ladder, where asking prices are on average £591,508, saw the biggest immediate increase, up 54% compared to the same week last year.
The top five biggest winners for a boost in enquiries were properties priced between £400,000 and £500,000 in Milton Keynes, Watford, Harrow, Chelmsford and Ilford.
For people still in the search stage of their home-moving journey it was locations in the South and the East of England that saw the largest uplifts, with Borehamwood seeing the biggest jump of 41%. The average asking price of the top ten collectively is just below the new threshold for England, at £483,081.
There was a 5% increase in the number of new sellers coming to market in England compared to the previous week, which we expect to increase further over the next few months as people look to make the most of the stamp duty holiday window.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove’s Commercial Director and Housing Market Analyst, says:
“The uplift in enquiries is likely a mixture of people looking in new areas to see what they can now afford, changing their search criteria to bigger, slightly more expensive homes, and new movers coming into the market because they now have enough extra budget to move home. The savings of £15,000 on property above £500,000 may also help some people to trade up more easily.
”Our analysis shows that this is going to help the mid-market the most, but all parts of a property chain are vital to keep the market moving. Although low deposit mortgage options are slowly coming back to the market, first-time buyers who were already exempt from stamp duty up to £300,000 may find that they will be competing with some buy-to-let investors also looking to make the most of the stamp duty savings in this sector of the market.”
It’s been a little over a week since the announcement, and mortgage searches have also seen an upward trajectory with regards to searches.
Twenty7Tec revealed that the 2 – 15 July, were the 13 busiest days of the year with regards to total mortgage searches. With the 14 July being the busiest day of the year to date.
Phil Bailey, Sales Director at Twenty7Tec says:
“Since the stamp duty announcement last week, the market has really hit its stride. The last seven days have been the busiest for mortgage searches all year and we’re handling increased volumes of searches each day. Yesterday was the busiest day of the year, closely followed by the day before. Yesterday’s residential mortgage searches were triple the volumes in lockdown.
“BTL has definitely pushed on and the past few days have been the busiest since the first couple of weeks in February. Our sense is that BTL will increase further as the products are there for that part of the market and the risk profile of BTL is still attractive to lenders.”
