17 November 2022
If you are covering the news at the Autumn Budget that the stamp duty cut will remain in place until 2025, please see the following Charlotte Nixon, mortgage expert at Quilter:
"With everyone’s finances stretched at the moment the property market is stalling and house prices are already suffering as a result. The only silver lining from the Truss and Kwarteng’s mini budget was the stamp duty cut. Today, Hunt signalled that while the housing market gets back on its feet over the next two years the cut will remain in place which will hopefully bring some much-needed demand to a market starting creak under the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis.
"While some lenders have said that house prices could drop by 10% other estate agents have signalled that after a tricky 2023 the housing market will then rebound. As demand picks up again the stamp duty cut will then be ditched, what effect that has is yet to be seen and will likely depend on how stretched finances remain.
"The previous stamp duty holiday brought in during the pandemic was hugely popular and played a major part in artificially increasing house prices but that was during a time when the cost of borrowing was cheap and some people were enjoying more money in their bank account as a result of not being able to spend it out and about.
"We are now living in very different times and even with the stamp duty cut in place house prices are likely still to suffer. If by then the housing market is still not back on its feet the government may choose to extend the cut. The housing market should see the stamp duty cut remaining as a lifeline that will prop up demand during what could be a torrid year for the housing market."
