BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 07/04/2021
MANY CONVEYANCERS FEEL THAT JUNE SDLT EXTENSION DATE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REACH
According to a recent poll conducted by ‘Today’s Conveyancer’ over 60% of conveyancers who showed an opinion are now giving a full stamp duty quote to any new clients. This is in line with thinking that any new residential sales agreed will not complete by the end of June, the second SDLT holiday extension deadline.
Given a typical sale takes 26 weeks, it will be interesting to see if the steam comes out of the market as the ‘stamp duty’ giveaway factor decreases. With an extra 2% SDLT for non-domicile buyers and lower threshold for help to buy, slowly these factors may dampen the market in the Autumn.
MIND THE GAP FIRST-TIME BUYERS NEED EVEN LARGER DEPOSITS TO BUY HOMES
According to intel released by the Halifax building society the size of the average deposit put down by a first-time buyer rose by 13% on the previous year, standing at over £57,000, up from £46,000 the year before. House price inflation looks set to make the cost of moving into a first property an expensive dream for many caught in generation rent.
ALMOST A THIRD OF HELP TO BUY HOUSING STOCK IS SOLD SUBJECT TO CONTRACT
As we start through April, recent intel from ZPG suggests that one third of the available Help to Buy housing stock has already been snapped up. Oxford, Portsmouth Swansea, and Bristol have already seen around 50% of their supply sold subject to contract. The implications being that New Home Builder’s will be seeing good profitability again this year, but house inflation will be a factor also.
Some industry pundits are now questioning if government backed inniatives actually help or hinder the market, the government loans certainly help buyers get on the ladder, but also inflate prices, which is a deterrent to some buyers getting into the property nexus.
NEW COO AT EPROPSERVICES
Phillipa Legg has been given a new position as the Chief Commercial Officer at Epropservices. This will further bolster the c-suite behind the rolling out of digital solutions for modern agency, which is a huge resource for both the Guild of Property Professionals and Fine & Country brands.
HOUSING STOCK BECOMES A REAL PROBLEM
Many agents are facing a drought of new inventory, that is the sentiment that we are hearing from a large sample of agents in key areas. The Easter holiday season is not helping with many now not listing during the recess, instead taking time out.
One agent said that he had the lowest amount of stock to sell in a decade and although his sales pipeline was significant, without new properties to sell, it would be a difficult Spring market.
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