Agents, buyers and sellers should prepare for a surge in fall throughs and collapsed sales thanks to the first stamp duty holiday period expiring at the end of this month.
At present, any home worth up to £500,000 is eligible for the stamp duty holiday, but after June 30 - that’s less than two weeks from now - the nil rate threshold will drop to homes worth up to £250,000 until September 30.
Then, from October onwards, the nil rate threshold will return to its pre-stamp duty holiday level of £125,000.
Some of the high street’s major lenders have confirmed their cut-off dates for receiving a Certificate of Title (COT) in order to complete on a mortgage by the end of the month.
HSBC/First Direct has a cut-off date of June 21 - that’s next Monday - while Leeds Building Society, Halifax and Barclays have a cut-off date of June 23. For Precise Mortgages, the cut-off is June 25.
Meanwhile, Nationwide/The Mortgage Works has provided no deadline, but says it requires
five working days to send funds by BACS and if the notice is less, they will deduct £20 for the
CHAPS payment.
This effectively means anyone relying on mortgage funding has just days left for their solicitor to complete their work, so the lenders can get the COT next week and release funds in time to beat the deadline.
This, in turn, means there could be many buyers and sellers who are relying on savings of up to £15,000 under the current stamp duty holiday rules - pulling out and provoking the collapse of a chain.
We experienced a similar scenarios in the last stamp duty holiday and the one before that and that so as experiences agents we have always ensured that our buyers can afford to proceed with a purchase with or without the holiday savings (of course everyone would prefer to save).
The pressure is on and the clock is ticking........ Good luck all.