Stamp duty: What is it and how much do I pay?
Now will this liberate the rural housing market or will it just drive up demand for the same amount of housing stock? This report tells us:
During the pandemic, the government announced a stamp duty holiday to help home buyers whose finances were affected by Covid. It meant no stamp duty was payable on the first £250,000 of a property.
It was widely thought to have stimulated the housing market and estate agents reported a surge of interest.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), UK average house prices increased by 15.5% over the year to July 2022, up from 7.8% in June 2022.
However, many things may have contributed to rising house prices.
“The final closure of the stamp duty scheme at the end of September 2021 may have had no impact at all,” says Nicky Stevenson, managing director at estate agents Fine and Country.
“Other factors are so much more important, namely the race for space, low supply, accidental savings [from the pandemic] and low interest rates.”