Conveyancers up and down the country broke records last week as the latest SDLT deadline passed on 31st March 2025.
A sizeable spike in transaction numbers was inevitable following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision not to extend the stamp duty reliefs in the Labour Budget in October 2024. From 1st April the threshold at which SDLT will be payable fell from £250,000 for residential properties, to £125,000. First Time Buyers (FTBs) will continue to benefit from a higher nil rate band, but it will now be for properties from £300,000 to £500,000; down from £425,000 to £625,000.
Over the past week conveyancer have reported record completion numbers as home movers attempted to beat the SDLT deadline. As it was, estimates on the number of people who missed the deadline range from 70,000 to 80,000.
The largest conveyancer in England and Wales by Land Registry transaction number Simplify, said they completed on 6,500 matters in the five days running up to the deadline. Others in the top ten by volume include Taylor Rose who said they had seen a 295% increase in completions from March 2024 to March 2025, from 935 completions to 3,700. Daventry-based Simply Conveyancing said they had completed on a record 146 matters in one day in the run up to the deadline.
Consultant-style firm Setfords said they saw a 93% increase in completions compared with February 2025; and a 163% increase on March 2024. The firm achieved 1,792 completions between Wednesday and Monday ahead of the deadline, and a record-breaking 705 completions on Friday 28th March. George Reynolds, Chief Growth Officer at Setfords, said:
“Achieving over 700 completions in a single day, as well as nearly doubling our monthly figures, speaks volumes about the resilience and dedication of our lawyers and support teams. They worked around the clock to help our clients complete in time and avoid hefty tax bills. This success underlines the strength of Setfords’ consultant-led model: personalised, responsive, and capable of delivering even under the most intense pressure.”
Richmond headquartered Muve, which has achieved a place on The Times 100 fastest growing companies in each of the last two years, says it achieved 1,820 completions in March.
Home moving group Simplify estimate during the last five days of March, completion volumes across the market exceeded those for the whole of March 2024.
“This has been a monumental effort by everyone involved. The dedication and collaboration across the industry have been truly inspiring. We are grateful for the support from the Bank of England and other payment providers, which has been crucial in achieving these record numbers.”
said David Grossman, CEO of Simplify.
While March transaction numbers will be published by HMRC at the end of April, February’s numbers, published at the end of March, provide an insight into the expected volumes with transaction numbers up a quarter on the same time last year, and 10% up on January 2025. The provisional non-seasonally adjusted estimate of residential transaction volumes in February 2025 is 90,430; numbers not see since February 2022.
Mortgage approval and borrowing figures published in the latest Bank of England (BoE) Money and Credit report paint a subdued picture in February but against sizeable gains in January, the annual growth rate for net mortgage lending was little changed at 1.9% this year. And a positive sales outlook amongst estate agents for April and May means conveyancers may well remain busy through to the Summer and beyond.
One Response
Looking at some of these figures the factories above are quoting:-
1. That is a colossal amount of referral fees they have paid out to receive that work
2. That is a lot of Insurance claims stored up for the future.
And I will bet already some of the factories are starting consultations on prospective redundancies for the market reduction as the year goes on.