The government initially brought in the stamp duty holiday on house sales to remove barriers to the housing market for first-time buyers and people struggling to find a place on the property ladder. When this was originally announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in July 2020, it was to help stimulate the UK economy in the first lull of the Covid-19 outbreak. After that summer, the case numbers rose again, and we saw a second wave that took the country right through until Spring 2021.

The stamp duty holiday was extended until the 30 of September 2021 and the ending of the initiative caused some nerves for mortgage lenders and brokers that it might slow the level of interest that had driven such a prominent boom over the last 18 months.

Now we’re several months past the end of the holiday and things don’t seem to be slowing down as dramatically as some predicted,  and its good news for the mortgage industry.

A rush at the end

The rise of home working, coupled with other unique market conditions resulting from the Covid lockdown, led to accidental savings and a “race for space”. These are the contributing factors that have seen homes across the country selling well in excess of their asking price.

As the stamp duty holiday came to a close, there was a big rush in property hunters getting their mortgages through before the deadlines. As a result of this spike of interest, mortgage brokers enjoyed the best September in a decade as transactions flocked at the end of the holiday, with 160,000 homes selling in the last phase of the holiday.

Market confidence remains strong, but will it continue?

Mortgage brokers can remain optimistic as research from OnTheMarket revealed that some 74% of active buyers and 81% of active sellers believed that they would buy and sell a home in the next three months, despite the end of the stamp duty holiday.

We should consider the full picture however, as confidence is not consistent across the market. Figures reported by the Hamptons Letting Index revealed that the share of new homes bought by investors in the buy-to-let (BTL) market rose by just 1% during the stamp duty holiday . This is a consideration for brokers when they balance the mortgage cases they work on, and which areas of the market offer the best potential.

With uncertainty ahead, there are steps that brokers can take to remain competitive:

• Understand your current client base and any further implications they may face now the stamp duty holiday has come to a close – assess if they are likely to be heavily, somewhat, or not at all affected

• Reach out to existing client bases – those who may be at the stage of remortgaging or those who have been in properties for a few years and considering moving/upgrading

• Implement CRM to help manage customer data and assess who is in need of your services now

• Assess your current offering and consider expanding to a wider base – if your main USP and client base is impacted, consider expanding your specialisms