What Does the 2021 Budget Mean for the Housing Market?

The Spring Budget this year was always going to be different, and many of us waited with baited breath.

As the country begins its recovery from a pandemic that has had an almost immeasurable effect on our lives and the economy, we want to pick out the important parts of the Chancellor’s budget that will affect you in the housing market. And we’re delighted to say there is some good news!

An Extended Stamp Duty Holiday to Take Advantage of

For a couple of reasons this will come as great news to many, creating more activity and massive savings!

With the new deadline being extended from March 31st to June 30th, many more of you will have time to complete legals and take advantage of this saving; which is great considering the slightly slower processing many have had to endure.

The Stamp Duty Holiday remains the same until June, enabling those buying properties up to the value of £500,000 to avoid Stamp Duty completely. On top of this, from June 30th until the end of September, the Stamp Duty threshold has been increased to £250,000 – double its standard level.  So if you’re only considering starting the moving process now, you have plenty of time to make savings in 2021!

New Buyers Supported with 5% Deposit Requirements

 After everything that’s happened, getting on to the housing ladder has become harder than ever… However, some light has appeared at the end of the tunnel for those desperately trying to save for their deposit; the government has introduced a 95 per cent loan to value (LTV) mortgage guarantee scheme to help buyers with small deposits get on the property ladder.  

With this new scheme, which goes live in April, prospective home buyers will be able to purchase homes up to the value of £600,000 with a deposit of only 5%. And with a Government backed guarantee, lenders are beginning to get on board with this new scheme, with many high street banks offering this opportunity already.

This follows a year where many first time buyers have faced rising deposits of up to 20% in order to secure a loan.

Please feel free to contact our advisors for further information on this new scheme, where we’ll be able to answer many questions and put you in contact with excellent financial and mortgage advisors.

Where does this leave you?

All in all, both of these changes have been seen as good news and will likely create another buzz around the market. So it could be an excellent time to both buy and sell with so much activity likely to take place.