Stamp duty holiday expected to save homebuyers

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Data collected by the firm shows that homebuyers have already saved £817m as a result of the tax relaxation.

The data shows 147,969 transactions have completed since 8 July last year.

A notable 125,389 (85%) of these transactions have fallen within the £500,000 price bracket meaning they are exempt from paying stamp duty due to the current holiday.

Before the stamp duty holiday, the 147,969 homebuyers to have already completed since 8 July last year would have paid £1.444bn in stamp duty.

However, stamp duty tax paid since July of last year totals just over £627m at present.

Homebuyers in London have seen the most significant saving compared to other major UK cities.

Keller Williams UK estimates the capital has seen a stamp duty saving of £190m alone, with 49% of all transactions also paying no tax at all having completed below the £500,000 threshold.

In Sunderland, 99.7% of residential transactions have been stamp duty exempt.

While this saving equates to £599,349, it has seen the amount of stamp duty paid hit just £12,025 compared to £611,374 in normal market conditions.

Ben Taylor, chief executive of Keller Williams UK, said: “While many will grumble about the current market backlogs and the level of homebuyers who could miss out on a stamp duty saving, there’s no denying it has been monumentally beneficial.

“Not only has it helped revive the market from a demand standpoint, but homebuyers have saved a tremendous amount of money.

“Although this saving has been more pronounced across the more inflated pockets of the market, a far higher percentage of homebuyers in more affordable areas have paid no stamp duty whatsoever.”