Thursday 30th September sees the final day on which the Stamp Duty Land Tax relief is applicable. Relieved conveyancers up and down the country will be able to breathe a sigh of relief as the end of the second phase of tapering will see SDLT revert back to the previous thresholds.
- £125,000 for residential properties
- £150,000 for non-residential land and properties
The SDLT holiday was introduced on 8th July 2020 to stimulate the property market post-lockdown. It has done so, and much more, with record transaction volumes and house prices in recent months.
Throughout the last 12 months Today’s Conveyancer has reported on the impact on conveyancers. We’ve published many heart-breaking stories of conveyancers being treated appallingly by customers and fellow professionals as tensions rose. We’ve also seen the industry come together to support one another as our professional and personal lives became so intertwined during lockdown and home-schooling.
In February 2021 we launched our “Call for Kindness” and industry Pledge encouraging all those involved in the conveyancing process to respect one another, relate to the challenges we all face and recognise our own roles when it comes to interacting with fellow professionals.
In a recent “Be Kind We Care” webinar, the mental health and well-being initiative launched by the Conveyancing Association, David Opie spoke of how 49% of respondents to a Today’s Conveyancer survey said they had seen people leave the industry because of mental health challenges in the last 12 months brought on by lockdown and work pressures.
You can see the webinar in full here: https://www.conveyancingfoundation.org.uk/be-kind-we-care/webinar/
And in May 2020 we recognised conveyancers up and down the country at the inaugural British Conveyancing Awards, taking the opportunity to thank everyone in the industry for your incredible efforts. We can exclusively reveal The British Conveyancing Awards will return in March 2021!
And don’t forget… as Simon Nosworthy, Head of Residential Conveyancing at Osbornes Law reminds us, first-time buyers relief is still available for properties less than £300,000.
“In the chaos of the stamp duty holiday most people seem to have forgotten that there is a fantastic stamp duty exemption for first-time buyers.
Beyond the end of September attention must now turn to ensuring pipelines remain full after such a busy period. While broadly busy and anticipated to remain so for conveyancers for a couple of months, there are murmurs that estate agency listings are on their way down as property supply continues to be a challenge. Some of the stats recently released by Propertymark back this up, with August figures showing the number of properties available per branch at 23, a drop from July’s figure of 28 per branch.
September’s number will make for interesting reading and give us some indication of how busy we can expect to be come the first quarter of 2022.
