Unpopular opinion. Market commentary. Have buyers been conned about the stamp duty holiday benefits?
Have buyers been conned about the stamp duty holiday benefits and are they now understandably disgruntled and falling out of love with the stamp duty holiday, which is, in some cases adding time and stress to their purchase? Likely, dependant on individual circumstances, with many of the homes that are being bought now more expensive as a result of the house price inflation due to the holiday.
A recent survey* of buyers shows that some 85 per cent blame the stamp duty tax break for delays in their own current purchases and a further 81 per cent believe that their sale is likely to miss both the initial extended deadline at the end of this month, as well as the secondary deadline due to expire at the end of September.
Co-founders of Hollywell Homes, Adam and Ben, returned to their hometown of Worcester in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, using this time to reconnect with industry professionals and focussing their energy on launching Hollywell Homes.
On top of hefty estate agency commissions, homebuyers are also facing higher costs as a result of the stamp duty holiday. Since the introduction of the stamp duty holiday, house prices across England alone have climbed by some 10.2 per cent - meaning the typical buyer is spending some £25,000 more than before the break was launched last summer. 54 per cent of the 1,191 buyers surveyed last week believe the stamp duty holiday to have had a negative impact on the market.
So could it be that homebuyers have now fallen out of love with Rishi Sunak and his promise of a stamp duty saving? With many now facing lengthy market delays, higher house prices and the bitter pill of having to swallow stamp duty, some by a matter of days missing the deadline, on their purchase. As with most government housing initiatives, the focus was never really on bringing genuine benefit to homebuyers, let us be realists for a moment, the aim has always been to stimulate the housing market in order to claim it as an indicator of economic success against the pandemic backdrop. Of course many will have enjoyed a saving, but for many more, an already inefficient and stressful process has been made even worse and homebuyer woes look set to continue for the foreseeable future.
There is a long history of Government interventions in the housing market, nearly all creating a short-term boost followed by a period of retraction. Governments invariably take short-term decisions in order to get re-elected rather than fundamentally change things that might take longer to show true benefit. This intervention is slightly different in that it kept the entire residential sales industry trading during the depths of the pandemic including ancillary business, saving many from ruin.
This is when both Adam and Ben co-founded Hollywell Homes with a simple concept. Local property professionals operating in refined, manageable territories with no expensive offices to open and run enabling them to charge homeowners a fair fixed fee to market and sell any property and save £1000’s in agency commissions. A win-win for everyone. In these testing times where every penny counts we know we can help many more homeowners save money whilst still receiving best-in-class personal service.
“Our senior team has worked together for over 15 years across Worcestershire in the property sector and has many more years of combined property experience between them. Responsible for all company initiatives they are heavily focused on company development; investing in new systems and technology to improve the buying and selling experience for our clients and enabling us to operate in a more efficient way, saving time for us as a business and passing those savings on to our customers”.
In addition, when you deal with Her Majesty’s Land Registry (HMLR) as much as we do offering strategic refinancing to clients that, if they’re are honest, don’t’ want to sell their homes but equally do not want to lose the equity in their homes if there is to be a market crash, we cannot fathom why such a crucial part of the home selling process would leave phones unanswered, email boxes full and no way of making contact with HMLR made available. As an example, we transferred land (transfer of part) back in November 2019 with the back log of applications at HMLR being as far back as 6 months, whereas now this is over 12 months delay. Although this does not represent a problem for the average mover, if like us you deal with strategic refinancing of property and portfolios, there is no solicitor in the country that would accept a completion of funds without the public record of HMLR being available (or expedited by a solicitor) adding further, unnecessary stress to what is an already stressful experience for most.
Our opinion is that stamp duty needs a complete overhaul and a reform of the home buying and sales process to further utilise new technology, processes, and digital currency to bring much needed efficiencies to the process. When you consider something as simple as being able to email web-signed documents to HMLR, as opposed to the current ‘hard copies in the post’ system, the time benefits could be easily demonstrated and would accelerate conveyance procedures, and dare we say it, dramatically reduce the current backlog issues HMLR are facing.
Over the course of 8 years, the Hollywell Homes team has sold millions of pounds worth of properties across Worcestershire and has saved Worcester homeowners over £2.5million in agency commissions.
For more information selling your home or for advice on strategic refinancing to increase the value of your home, please visit https://www.hollywellhomes.co.uk or call Adam and Ben at their Worcester head office on 01905 948848.
