Stamp duty did not change. The deals you parked can move.
No change to stamp duty rates or thresholds. The speculation that stalled transactions through the autumn is over, and the thing people were waiting for was never coming.
Short piece, because there is not much to say and that is the point.
The Budget made no change to stamp duty rates or thresholds. No change to rates, no change to thresholds, and no move on the 5% surcharge on additional property. The reform that was speculated about through the autumn did not appear.
We said this before the Budget
The Prime Minister ruled out stamp duty changes back in July, and rejected the suggestion that stamp duty and council tax would be replaced with a single annual property tax at this stage. We wrote at the time that borrowers waiting for Budget clarity were usually waiting for something that had already been decided.
That held. The uncertainty was real but it was not about stamp duty, and anyone who parked a purchase in September on the possibility of a stamp duty cut has paid three months of waiting for no information.
Reform is off the table for this Budget, not permanently
Worth being accurate about this. A petition to replace stamp duty and council tax with a proportional annual property tax passed 100,000 signatures and is due to be debated. Think tanks and committees continue to push for reform, and the IMF has pointed to property taxes as one of the areas where tax systems can be improved.
So the question comes back. It is simply not an answer anyone is getting before the next fiscal event, which means it is not a reason to hold a deal.
What usually happens next
The pattern after a Budget is reasonably consistent. Transactions held during the speculation get released, and the people who move first get the better end of it, because they are competing with fewer buyers and because lenders have capacity before the backlog arrives.
Two places that shows up quickly:
If you parked something, this is the week
The information you were waiting for exists now. If the only reason a purchase was on hold was the Budget, the hold has expired.
And if the deal needs to move quickly, that is what short-term lending is for. A bridge arranged against a clear exit is a week or two of work when the file is in order, and considerably longer when it is not.
“We had clients sitting on purchases since September waiting for a stamp duty announcement that was ruled out in July. The lesson is not about stamp duty. It is that waiting for certainty is a decision with a cost, and the cost is usually paid in competition.”