DEXTERS, London’s leading independent Chartered Surveyor and Estate Agent, say that buyers need to be allowed more time to complete on stamp duty holiday home sales as there is currently a race by buyers across London to move home by the end of March – many sellers and buyers have agreed sales based on the temporary reduction in stamp duty, but they are being frustrated by the lockdown.

DEXTERS say that if buyers and sellers exchange contracts by the current deadline of 31st March then the Chancellor should give them more time to complete and move home, rather than there being a great rush amidst the pandemic restrictions. DEXTERS, which has 70 offices across the capital and over 100,000 buyers and tenants looking for a new London home, believes that giving Londoners more time to move is critical for their physical health and mental wellbeing. Households are already stressed enough due to the pandemic and the extra time will help ensure that they can organise legal paperwork, removals vans, home cleaning, fire/electrical safety checks and other essential items without being overly time pressured.

Andy Shepherd, CEO of DEXTERS, says: “It is essential that the Chancellor looks at this carefully and considers property buyers’ health and mental wellbeing. Whilst our teams in DEXTERS offices are rising to the challenge of keeping the London property market moving safely, there is only so much we can do when mortgage providers and solicitors are struggling to keep up during lockdown. Our offices remain closed to the public with teams working in strictly controlled Covid-Secure bubbles, something that we’ve successfully been doing since last May, right through the November lockdown. With the help of lots of video and time on the phone, sales and lettings transactions across London have been continuing but understandably everyone would prefer to actually move in when the pandemic has subsided and the vaccine been rolled out to the most vulnerable.”

DEXTERS position is that having agreed deals in good faith sellers and buyers should be given more time to take advantage of the lower rate of stamp duty. Households weren’t to know that the new year lockdown would delay their move and potentially deny them the incentive. With banks and building societies, solicitors and conveyancers all struggling to work normally in lockdown there are real challenges in progressing house sales.

DEXTERS believe that a fair and practical solution to achieve what the scheme intended, would be to take the heat out of the lockdown race and allow any buyers who exchange contracts by the end of March to still pay the reduced duty but complete and physically move in the weeks and months that follow.

DEXTERS own experience of the market in their network of London offices shows that there has been a surge in applicants and buyers trying to beat the March stamp duty deadline. November and December 2020 saw the number of sales applicants rise by 158% year on year and this has continued in 2021. DEXTERS currently have some 5,000 sellers and buyers who have agreed to move before the end of March 2021.

Andy Shepherd, CEO of DEXTERS, says: “It can’t be right to have house movers and their removals vans queuing up in March trying to beat the deadline in the pandemic lockdown. Whilst stamp duty is vital to the Chancellor and his future plans to refill the country’s coffers, he needs to put right George Osborne’s stamp duty mistake of 2015. In his autumn budget Osborne dramatically increased rates in a move that has been counterproductive, discouraging high end house moves and so reducing rather than increasing the amount of tax received. We believe that tax rates should be capped at 10%, any more has proven to collect less tax and reduce mobility, particularly in London.”

DEXTERS expect to see sales transactions across its Prime Central London offices doubling in volume during 2021, with PCL residential property prices and lettings values rising by 2% to 3%. Whilst the current Stamp Duty holiday will end in March DEXTERS does not expect this to impact on the market greatly since the amounts being saved are minimal when compared to the 12% to 15% rates payable over £1.5m. Also the change will happen in the Spring, which is the start of the busiest time of the year for Londoners moving home.