London’s leading developer Galliard Homes is launching a further extension to the Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday across select sites until 1st January 2022, helping buyers to get on the property ladder and save up to £15,000. The latest extension follows a previous six month holiday offered across Galliard’s key sites which saw huge buyer interest and a significant uplift in buyer enquiries. Testament to how popular the extension is with buyers, Galliard reveals one of their schemes Church Road in Leyton has now fully sold out with buyers drawn to the stylish, affordable apartments.

Galliard is offering a full extension of the holiday across five sites in central and outer London until 1st January 2022, giving buyers 6 more months to complete after the Government’s extension ends 30th June.

The developments benefitting are Papermill House in Romford, Westgate House in Ealing, Wimbledon Grounds in Wimbledon, Newham’s Yard in Southwark and Timber Yard in Birmingham. The stamp duty extension applies to all properties priced up to £500,000, with Galliard paying the tax due on properties which complete before the 1st January deadline. For any properties priced above this bracket, Galliard will pay the first £15,000, with the buyers paying the remaining cost. The stamp duty extension can also be used in addition to Galliard’s other buyer incentives, with a huge range of savings available.

Before the Government announced their extension from 31st March to 30th June, Galliard had initially offered a six month extension across nine sites in central and outer London, one of them being Church Road. Ahead of the original deadline for the holiday, the Government was met with industry backlash and over 100,000 signed a petition, with many reporting a huge bottleneck effect on the market as buyers rushed to complete before the deadline, coupled with COVID-19 causing delays at each step of the buying process. There is concern the same issue may happen again, with Galliard’s extension offering buyers further peace of mind.

David Galman, Sales Director at Galliard Homes says: “After our initial extension to the stamp duty holiday, we saw a significant increase in buyer enquiries across all key sites, with buyers keen to secure their dream homes and avoid the ‘bottleneck’ effect much of the market was experiencing. Buyers are finding homes they love but every part of the process is facing severe delays due to COVID-19 and the lockdown restrictions, and in turn this means a purchase can take much longer than usual. Since the Government has extended the holiday to end of June, at Galliard we want to again offer our buyers further peace of mind. We are offering a stamp duty holiday extension with us on five key sites until 1st January 2022.”

One of the developments that saw a huge uplift in enquiries following the developer’s extension is Church Road in Leyton; Galliard is delighted that the scheme has now fully sold out, with the last few buyers encouraged by the stamp duty extension and helped by the dedicated sales team.

Church Road offers 38 stylish newbuild apartments alongside two luxurious three-bedroom townhouses. All apartments have a private balcony or terrace, whilst the townhouses boast both private gardens and second floor terrace space. There is also a communal roof terrace on the fifth floor of the apartment building, alongside landscaped courtyard gardens on ground floor. Offering high quality starter homes, where prices started from £350,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, all buyers have now moved into Church Road.

One of the happy buyers at Church Road is Sasi Mugunthan, aged 40, who bought one of the three-bedroom townhouses using Help to Buy. Sasi is a technical lead at Citibank, and had been looking online for property in the local Leyton market when Galliard’s scheme was suggested by a property consultant.

“I had heard of Galliard’s good reputation for delivering high-quality homes across London so as soon as Church Road was suggested I was keen to look at the development myself,” said Sasi. Using Help to Buy and putting down a 5% deposit, Sasi and his family moved into their townhouse just in time for Christmas 2020.

The stamp duty holiday was a key motivator for Sasi, who explained Galliard’s extension removed the pressure that many buyers felt to complete in time. “The extension gave us peace of mind, we saw the townhouse, made an offer and then Galliard’s dedicated team helped us through the process. The Help to Buy process was quite delayed due to how busy the market was but Galliard’s team helped us at each step.”

David Galman, Sales Director at Galliard Homes continues, “Our stamp duty holiday can be used in addition to any of our other buyer offerings, and is helping both first-time buyers and those seeking larger family homes to secure their dream homes. Following our stamp duty extension announcement, our Church Road scheme in Leyton received a huge number of enquiries for the final collection and we are delighted that all our buyers have now moved in to enjoy their new homes. For the five sites benefitting from our further stamp duty extension, we anticipate similarly high levels of demand especially from first-time buyers or young families where the tax holiday is a massive boost.”

The starting prices for the sites benefitting from the stamp duty extension are from £199,000 for a studio suite at Papermill House in Romford, from £295,000 for a studio suite at Westgate House in Ealing, from £329,995 for a studio suite at Wimbledon Grounds in Wimbledon, from £640,000 for a one bedroom apartment at Newham’s Yard in Southwark, and from £210,000 for a studio suite at Timber Yard in Birmingham.