The stamp duty holiday, which was set to end in March 2021, is set to be extended by three months and will now come run through till the end of June.
The news of an extension comes just a week before Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget, where he will set out a post-Covid recovery plan for the UK.
Many have urged the Chancellor to push back the date as a large number of home buyers have been scrambling to push through house transactions before the initial deadline.
It is estimated that around 100,000 buyers would have missed out on the stamp duty holiday had it come to an end in March, mainly due to Covid pressures slowing down the process of purchasing a house.
Speaking of the extension, Daniel Fallows, Director at Gorilla Accounting commented: “It’s fantastic to see the Government continuing to support homebuyers and lenders – and the news breaking today is fantastic for both of those groups. Those who had been worried that the March deadline may come too soon for their completion date, are now feeling much more relaxed.
“Though it’s worth noting that the extension doesn’t apply to those who are buy-to-let investors, as they will still need to pay stamp duty.”
Under the current rules announced by the Chancellor last year, the stamp duty threshold had been temporality raised from £125,000 to £500,000 for property sales in England and Northern Ireland and £250,000 in Scotland and Wales.
The move prompted a surge in home sales across the UK, with reports suggesting house sales have increased to their highest level since before the 2007 financial crisis.
Figures from HM Revenue & Customs suggest that almost 130,000 transactions went through before December 2020.
