Stamp Duty Holiday Extension – Update

by Patrick Garratt - 25th February 2021

We recently shared a link to an online petition requesting e Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to extend the ‘Stamp Duty Holiday‘.

It seems the Chancellor has listened to the signatories of the petition with multiple media outlets now reporting that he will announce a three month extension to the scheme, making the new cut off point 30th June 2021. It is expected that the announcement will be made on the 3rd March as part of the Chancellors Spring Budget.

The tax break, which was designed to top Covid-19 decimating the property market, can save buyers up to £15,000 in duty on the purchase of a property.

It is not clear whether the extension would apply to all purchases, or just those agreed before a certain date.

According to Rightmove, approximately 100,000 buyers who agreed a purchase in 2020 will have to pay the full rate of Stamp Duty if the end date is not moved; it also estimated that an additional 300,000 transactions could escape the tax if the deadline is extended, costing the Treasury £1.75bn.

There is currently a ‘ logjam’ in the conveyancing sector as buyers are pushing to get their agreed purchase exchanged in time to meet the current deadline of 31 March 2021.