The Stamp Duty holiday, which is confirmed to end on March 31, has caused an unprecedented boom in the housing market. Following the lift in the spring lockdown, there was a huge surge in demand as more people looked to support their new working habits with more space and a fresh environment.
According to Halifax, average property values are 7.6% higher compared with a year before and house prices have risen at their fastest pace in more than 4 years; in November, almost £3,000 on average was added to the cost of a home.
In light of the boom for the housing market, Benjamin Dyer, CEO of Powered Now, an app designed to take the pain out of admin and paperwork for the trade sector, discusses what the stamp duty cut means for the trades and the UK’s economy, as well as calling for a permanent stamp duty holiday:
“At our end of the market, trades companies that have up to 15 staff, there is very little definition between domestic and commercial. Our users can end up fitting a homeowner’s gas central heating one day, then acting as a contractor on an estate of new builds the next. Our market is built on the blunt pragmatism, broadly speaking they go where the work is.
“There has been a lot of discussion recently about the impact of the pandemic on the trade, house prices and the Chancellor’s hope we can spend our way out of a second recession. When the Chancellor announced a stamp duty holiday at the start of the crisis, he set a fire under a simmering property market, thousands of homeowners – as well as first time buyers – took advantage of this scheme to up sticks and move.
“With the scheme coming to an end on 31 March, we would encourage the government to make this stamp duty cut permanent.
“You could argue, as many have, that this cut has created a sugar rush. An artificial spiking the market simply didn’t need as it was always going to explode post lockdown. In a word, this is rubbish.
“The truth is, this is money that is being reinvested into property and ultimately back into the economy. Homeowners are not making a saving; they are either stepping up or improving with everyone winning. The boom in the market has caused 950k small trade companies to not only ride the storm but ultimately thrive, and because of this we hope that come 31 March, it continues.”
