Physical Address

304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124

Agreed UK property sales jump ahead of stamp duty increase


Stay informed with free updates

Agreed UK property sales rose for almost a third year on year to the end of 2024 as buyers rushed to avoid a stamp duty hike from next April, according to data from Zoopla.

Property portal Research reported on Monday that 283,000 sales had been agreed but not yet completed as of December 14, the largest sales pipeline in four years and up 30 percent by the end of 2023.

Buyer inquiries rose 21 percent in December compared to the same period last year. The company blamed two trends for the upcoming rise in stamp duty, which was announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. October budget.

Richard Donnell, executive director of Zoopla, said: “There is a large pipeline of sales that will be completed in the first half of 2025 and many are hoping to avoid higher stamp duty costs from next April.”

“Buyers and sellers have returned to the housing market in 2024 which has been delayed in the face of higher mortgage rates,” he added.

Reeves confirmed in the Budget that a temporary stamp duty holiday would end in March. As a result, first-time buyers, for example, will start paying duty on properties worth £300,000 or more from April 2025, instead of the current £425,000.

Anticipation of changes to the stamp duty regime helped lift mortgage approvals to their highest level since August 2022 in October, according to separate data released by the Bank of England.

Matt Thompson, head of sales at Chesterton, said the estate agency was “looking at its busiest December of the year in terms of buyer demand”.

“This is mostly driven by first-time buyers keen to get on the property ladder before next year’s stamp duty changes, but also second-steppers, including young families, who want to upsize,” he added.

UK house prices November rose 3.7 percent year-on-yearThe fastest annual increase since November 2022, according to separate data released nationwide in early December.

Zoopla reported a further acceleration in annual home price growth in December compared to last month. But it also noted that buyers had become more price-sensitive following the Autumn Budget and amid growing uncertainty over the outlook for mortgage rates.

Buyers paid an average of 3.6 percent less than a property’s asking price in December, Zoopla data shows, up from 3.2 percent in the summer.

Mortgage rates have risen since November on concerns about stubborn inflation, raising financial market expectations that the Bank of England will be cautious to cut interest rates next year.

central bank Its benchmark rate holds to 4.75 percent last week after two declines since the summer. After the latest vote, BoE Governor Andrew Bailey said “increased uncertainty in the economy” meant policymakers could not commit to “when or how much we will cut rates over the coming year”.

Zoopla expects UK house prices to rise by 2.5 per cent in 2025 Thompson forecast a rise of 3.4 per cent, saying that “improved affordability, buoyant demand and renewed confidence in the market will provide support for a steady rise in property values”.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *