Conveyancers around the country will be preparing for yet another uptick in demand as Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced stamp duty land tax (SDLT) would be cut as part of his mini-budget 2022.
Following on from the leap in workloads during stamp duty holidays gone by, conveyancers have been preparing to become even busier since the idea was mooted earlier this week.
Kwarteng is to raise the SDLT-free threshold from £125,000 to £250,000 – and for first-time buyers (FTBs) it will rise from £300,000 to £425,000. The value of properties upon which FTBs can claim relief will also increase from £500,000 to £625,000.
This is a permanent cut which is effective today, and will save 200,000 people from paying SDLT each year.
Stephen Ward, Director of Strategy at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers commented:
“We don’t expect there to be a spike in activity like the one we saw with the pandemic SDLT holidays, but the same advice applies: firms should always be careful to ensure that they manage workloads to maintain the highest standards of service and advice to clients.”
Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, said:
“The rebalancing of the thresholds for which stamp duty is paid, in particular for first time buyers is long overdue to catch up with house prices which have risen at an extraordinary rate. We did hope that stamp duty for downsizers or last time movers would have also been reviewed to release the latter part of the market, which when blocked stops movement further down for second steppers and first-time buyers, causing stagnation as buyers have nothing to move on to.”
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