UK house sales expected to further rise in 2021
The Uk house sales are continuously picking up since the summer due to pent-up demand following the UK-wide lockdown and the introduction of stamp duty holiday on properties up to £500,000. Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the stamp duty holiday in July 2020.
Therefore, more than 100,000 additional UK house sales may take place during the first three months of 2021 as the buyers rush to complete their purchases before the end of the stamp duty holiday. The ‘holiday’ applies from 8 July 2020 until 31 March 2021.
The government estimates that nearly nine out of 10 people getting on or moving up the property ladder will pay no stamp duty at all during the holiday.
According to the figures from property website Zoopla, the number of new sales remains 38% higher than it was a year ago. Zoopla predicts the housing market will be the busiest before Christmas than in past ten years.
London and southern England recorded the strongest boom in property sales with 7% more sales than in the previous year.
The flurry of interest from potential buyers has pushed up house prices by 3.5%. This the highest level of growth for almost three years. It is set to increase further by the end of 2020.
Richard Donnell, director of research and insight at Zoopla said that the housing market has had a “remarkable turnaround” since the spring.
“It has been a rollercoaster year for the housing market which is ending on a strong note with demand and sales agreed still more than 30% higher than this time last year,” Donnell said.
Continued interest from homebuyers caused residential property transactions to surge by almost 10% in October, compared with a month earlier.
More than 105,000 residential transactions took place last month, an increase of nearly 10% compared with September, and 8.1% higher than October 2019, according to figures from HMRC.