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Permanent stamp duty cut should be considered – Knight Frank
The government should think about making the stamp duty relief for properties below £500,000 permanent as signs show the tax break has provided an “additional boost of activity” to the housing market, Knight Frank has suggested.
The real estate firm said the residential property market was “as robust as it has been for many years” as it analysed the impact the announcement of the stamp duty holiday had on the sector.
According to Knight Frank, the number of new prospective buyers for properties valued at less than £1.5m doubled between 8 July – when the stamp duty holiday was announced – and 3 August.
During the same period, the number of new buyers seeking properties worth more than £1.5m increased by 70 per cent.
The firm found the number of offers accepted in UK markets between 8 July and 3 August was 146 per cent above the five-year average for properties valued at less than £1.5m, and above that value, the increase was 71 per cent.
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Knight Frank also said the number of viewings grew for properties valued at less than £1.5m, rising 46 per cent compared to the five-year average. Above £1.5m, the increase was 13 per cent.
When asked by Mortgage Solutions, Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, did not disclose the actual figures but said the increases were not “small or inflated”.
Bill said: “The holiday, it must be concluded, is working. Whether it should become a permanent arrangement is something the government should consider.”