Conveyancing emergency as thousands of home buyers set to miss out on stamp duty holiday

The UK is heading into a conveyancing emergency as thousands of home buyers are set to miss out on the Chancellor’s stamp duty holiday.

Thousands of home buyers are set to miss out on Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday due to the current property boom and lack of conveyancing resource to deal with it, reveals the latest Property & Homemover Report from data specialists, TwentyCi.

Since 2008 the residential property market has maintained a steady volume of approximately 1 million transactions a year, however, post lockdown the market is witnessing transaction levels unseen for over a decade. The data reveals new instructions are up 16 per cent, sales agreed are up 24 per cent and the number of properties being withdrawn from the market are down five per cent.

Comments George James, Surveyor:

“The market is running hot. There has literally been an overnight increase in sales but not a magical overnight increase in the capacity of surveyors, conveyancers, search providers or mortgage underwriters. We are struggling to cope with demand and the back log is getting bigger by the day. There is a real concern that home buyers will miss out on the stamp duty holiday because of chain delays and being unable to get through the home buyers process in time.”

Other key findings of the report include:
  • The average asking price across the UK has risen £31,000 year-on-year, now standing at £384,000
  • The only area to have experienced a fall in asking price is inner London recording a decrease of five per cent
  • Wales has experienced the highest price change at +12 per cent
  • The South West has seen the highest rise in sales agreed at +38 per cent
  • Three and four bed houses have experienced the largest increase in sales agreed at 24 per cent and 43 per cent respectively
  • Sales agreed have risen by 47 per cent in rural areas compared to just 19 per cent in Urban Areas
  • Sales agreed on detached properties are up 48 per cent
  • There has been a 76 per cent increase in the number of people saying they want to move since Q4 2019
Colin Bradshaw, Chief Customer Officer, TwentyCi, says:

“The data clearly shows that the Pandemic has had a significant impact on the way people now want to live. Unsurprisingly we are seeing demand grow for bigger properties, most likely to facilitate working from home and also a move towards rural areas where houses tend to have access to more outside space. However, it looks like people are going to have to wait longer than usual to move due to the delays in the conveyancing ecosystem which will be an added worry for home-movers at an already stressful time if the stamp duty holiday is not extended.”

 

Kindly shared by TwentyCi

Main article photograph courtesy of Pixabay