Jeremy Raj, national head of residential property at Irwin Mitchell is calling for the stamp duty holiday to be extended.
Jeremy Raj, national head of residential property at Irwin Mitchell, is calling for the stamp duty holiday to be extended.
Data collected by Zoopla shows that there is currently a backlog totaling 420,000 buyers, which equates to £112bn, who are attempting to complete their purchase before the stamp duty holiday deadline on 31 March 2021.
In order to continue stimulating the housing market over the course of 2021, many believe that the government must extend the deadline.
Raj said: “We reinforce our call that the government should row back from the end-of-the-SLDT-holiday cliff edge at the end of next March, given it already appears set to cause considerable unnecessary chaos and anxiety.”
Moreover, housing secretary Robert Jenrick has confirmed that the housing market will be able to continue to operate after the lockdown restrictions are emplaced from 5 November.
Raj added: “We are pleased and relieved that the government has already confirmed that the housing market is to remain open for business under the proposed national measures.
“Due to the difficulties of home working and the economic backdrop, as well as the earlier total shutdown of the market and subsequent bottle-neck, several parts of the industry have really struggled to keep up. Transaction timescales have increased across the board accordingly. Anything that brings a measure of certainty to the new regime is to be welcomed.”
