Stamp duty holiday on course to save homebuyers £1.5bn – claim

The current stamp duty holiday has already saved homebuyers an estimated £817 million, with the potential to reach £1.5 billion before the March deadline, according to research by Keller Williams UK.

Despite huge market backlogs and many homebuyers fearing they will miss out, the benefit of the current tax cut is ‘abundantly clear’.

The firm analysed property sold price records for residential transactions in England since the introduction of the stamp duty holiday. It then looked at the number of transactions exempt from paying stamp duty as a percentage of all transactions and the total saving made by homebuyers above and below the £500,000 threshold.

The data shows 147,969 transactions have completed to the tune of more than £50.3 million in value since 8 July last year.

A notable 125,389 (85%) of these transactions have fallen within the £500,000 price bracket, meaning they’re exempt from paying stamp duty due to the current holiday.

Prior to the holiday, these homebuyers would have paid £1,444 billion in stamp duty. With the reprieve in place, stamp duty tax paid since July 2020 totals just £627.467 million, with more buyers still due to benefit as a result.

With homebuyers saving £5.6 million a day so far, Keller Williams forecasts the total saving come the end of March could be as high as £1.5 billion.

London buyers have seen the most significant saving at around £190 million, with 49% of all transactions also paying no tax at all having completed below the £500,000 threshold.

In contrast, a more affordable price tag across other regional cities means the saving has been far less pronounced, although the benefit has arguably been greater.

Ben Taylor, chief executive officer of Keller Williams UK, comments: “While many will grumble about the current market backlogs and the level of homebuyers who could miss out on a stamp duty saving, there’s no denying it has been monumentally beneficial.”

“Not only has it helped revive the market from a demand standpoint, but homebuyers have saved a tremendous amount of money.”