The Chancellor’s Budget will help breathe some much-needed life back into the post-lockdown property market and is particularly good news for people currently buying a home.
Rishi Sunak announced an extension to the Stamp Duty break together with a Government guarantee on mortgages with only 5% deposit in move to encourage more people onto the property ladder.
The three-month Stamp Duty extension gives a bit of breathing space to those homebuyers already in the process of buying a house and worried they wouldn’t make the original March 31 deadline.
In the summer, the Government temporarily increased the amount at which stamp duty is paid from £125,000 to £500,000. This will now remain at this level until June 30, where it will drop to £250,000 for a further three months before returning to its normal level on October 1.
It means that anyone buying a home costing up to £500,000 before 30 June will not pay any Stamp Duty.
For first time buyers – the life blood of a strong housing market – the government guarantee scheme means they will spend less time paying rent and trying to save for a 20% deposit, allowing them to become homeowners much sooner.
Lenders who offer the 95% mortgages will be provided with a guarantee from the government on homes with a value of up to £600,000. Many of the big lenders are already backing the scheme which comes into force in April.
