Stamp duty holiday for homes up to £500,000

News 08.07.2020

John Foster

The Chancellor has announced a new stamp duty holiday for homes up to £500,000.

Temporary stamp duty holiday UK

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has today announced a Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday which will come into effect immediately.

As part of the government’s Plan for Jobs, homebuyers are now exempt from paying any tax on main home purchases up to £500,000 until 31st March 2021.

The new rules will benefit nine out of ten people, but second home purchases will continue to follow the existing stamp duty rules. Under the existing scheme, only properties below £125,000 and first home purchases up to £300,000 were exempt from paying stamp duty.

John Foster, Managing Director, Fosters Financial said: “A stamp duty holiday is a welcome boost for the property market. Since the easing of lockdown, we have received a lot of demand from first time buyers and the significant savings for those higher up the property ladder, will hopefully encourage them to get moving.

With the summer months historically being a very popular time for homemovers, we hope that today’s announcement will also benefit us and encourage more lenders to bring back their 90% LTV and 95% LTV mortgage products.”

Information correct as of 8 July 2020.