The stamp duty holiday fast-approaching with no word from the Government yet on whether the deadline will be extended past March 31. There have been calls from campaigners and industry insiders for the stamp duty holiday to be extended for a further six months. Tory backbenchers have also called for the property tax and council tax to be scrapped completely.
However, with no news on whether the deadline will be extended, buyers are still rushing to complete their transactions before the deadline comes to an end.
A survey by Yes Homebuyers has revealed that 39 percent of buyers are planning to pull out of their transactions if they think they will miss the stamp duty deadline.
Out of the 3,717 people surveyed, 45 percent said they are willing to pay in full now to skip the housing market backlog.
The rush to complete purchases before March 31 has led to a backlog of transactions.
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Most buyers are hopeful that they will complete their transactions before the end of March.
Matthew Cooper, Founder & Managing Director of Yes Homebuyers, said the stamp duty holiday has been “outstanding” when it comes to fuelling property demand.
However, the Government did not take into account how the market would deal with such an uplift.
He added: “Although the idea of a stamp duty saving would have been a tantalising one, many buyers are now finding themselves stuck in market limbo, facing more stress, long delays, temporary living arrangements, or having to place a higher offer. All for a few thousand saved in tax.
“Even worse, the market backlog has been enough to cause purchases to fall through with more potentially having to pull out if they do miss the deadline.
“At Yes Homebuyers, we’ve seen the current backlog spur a flurry of enquiries.
“Some have been financially dependent on their sale completing before the end of March, but most just want the stability of a concrete timeframe.
“Opting for the route of a home buying platform not only enables them to skip the queue of delayed purchases in the regular market, but it allows them to move forward with their own onward purchase.”
Research by property platform WiggyWam has also found that properties falling through and aborted sales are costing homebuyers a whopping £607million each year.
As the stamp duty holiday comes to an end, some experts are predicting that this number will rise even further.
The site also revealed that there are an average of 225,000 fall-throughs in the UK residential property market each year which equates to one in four sales falling through.
Property sales can fall through for a range of reasons including mortgage problems, survey results, gazumping, conveyancing delays and broken chains.