THE HOUSING market will “boom” back in January following an expected slump in the wake of the Stamp Duty deadline, an expert says.

Figures released earlier this week revealed mortgage lending fell sharply last month after the government withdrew the tax break introduced in the pandemic.

Jonathan Rolande, of the National Association Of Property Buyers, said the market is still “extremely buoyant”. And he said that some of the NAPB’s members were now reporting record levels of purchases.
He said: “Mortgage lending is down, but cash buyers still have the appetite to purchase. Our members are reporting higher volumes with many purchasing more now than in any previous year.

“The market is still extremely buoyant although there is a sense of some purchasers holding off until next year in the hope of sellers becoming more realistic on price.
“Now the SDLT spike has gone, the market should settle to a more normal pattern, slowing a little in the run up to Christmas with a boom in demand in early January 2022.”

Stats released last week showed that net borrowing using mortgage debt tumbled to £1.6 billion in October, down from £9.3 billion in the previous month.

The figure was the lowest since July, when borrowers repaid £2.2 billion of their mortgage debt, and was driven by homeowners bringing forward borrowing to September to take advantage of a reduction in stamp duty on higher- priced properties. Gross lending tumbled to £19.3 billion last month from £30.7 billion in September, while total repayments fell to £18.2 billion from £20.6 billion. Net borrowing in October was £4.6 billion below the 12-month average for the period when the full stamp duty holiday was in effect.

The housing market has been booming since the summer of last year and the Treasury’s announcement that the first £500,000 of a property purchase would be tax-free. The relief was extended to the end of June, when it was halved to £250,000. Last month, the threshold returned to £125,000.