The Chancellor's stamp duty land tax (SDLT) holiday is due to end on the 31 March 2021.
At the moment this means that someone buying a property for £500,000 or less pays no SDLT whereas on the 1 April 2021 they will pay £10,000. Prior to this concession or SDLT holiday as it is known SDLT started at £125,000.
First Time Buyers are not affected by this as no SDLT is payable by them for purchases up to £500,000.
If you are looking to take advantage of the SLDT holiday and you haven't agreed a purchase on a property then you are quickly running out of time. The market is extremely busy at present and sales transactions are taking longer to reach exchange of contracts.
If you have an existing purchase in progress you need to exchange contracts prior to 31 March 2021. To enable this to happen in a very busy market you will need to make sure that you respond to all enquiries as quickly as possible and encourage your solicitor to apply for all searches at the earliest possible date.
Likewise, you should ensure that where you are obtaining a mortgage that your adviser or lender is moving things forward as quickly as possible. As we are acting on your behalf, we are regularly supporting these efforts by regular communication with all parties, but this can only be helped by your input as well.
Here at JB&B Leach we have a wealth of experience in dealing with property transactions in St Helens and making sure that property sales proceed through to exchange and completion as quickly and efficiently as possible.
If you'd like to discuss this or any other property matters with one of our experts then go to our contacts page to get in touch.