Research by Rightmove has revealed that the decision to extend the stamp duty holiday to 30 June supports employment.
Research by Rightmove has revealed that the decision to extend the stamp duty holiday to 30 June supports employment.
It is estimated that house-builders and their contractors employ 240,000 people.
In addition, a further 300,000 to 500,000 people are involved within the supply chain.
Therefore, the extension provides extended certainty to those within this area of the marketplace according to Rightmove.
As part of the extension, property owners will not pay stamp duty for properties up to £500,000 until the end of June.
As well as this, the nil rate band will be increased to £250,000 until 1 October.
Sunak said: “The cut in stamp duty I announced last summer has helped hundreds of thousands of people buy a home and supported the economy at a critical time.
“But due to the sheer volume of transactions we are seeing, many new purchases will not complete in time for the end of March.”
Within half an hour of the announcement, the use of Rightmove's mortgage calculator jumped by 85% and overall traffic to the Rightmove website increased by 16%.
Rightmove data estimates that almost half (45%) of all properties will be exempt from stamp duty from July to September.
