Stamp Duty Relief Announced for First-time Buyers, Plus More

Welcome to David Doyle's December newsletter.

In this edition, we share some top tips on how to sell your home this winter, the government have announced stamp duty relief for first-time buyers, and a recent sentiment survey has revealed that four out of five homeowners are confident that house prices will continue to rise.

Government Announces Stamp Duty Relief For First-Time Buyers

In a bid to improve homeownership throughout the UK, It was announced in the latest autumn budget that first-time buyers will no longer face the cost of stamp duty.

There were many changes announced by the government in the most recent budget, but the major headline was the scrapping of stamp duty for first-time buyers on all properties up to a value of &300,000.

This change will take effect immediately and could save first-time buyers a potential &5,000 in fees when completing on their home.

What is Stamp Duty?

Stamp duty is a tax applied to any property purchase priced at more than &125,000. The latest reform will see the minimum stamp duty limit increased to &300,000. This means that according to statistics, approximately 80% of first-time buyers will save money on stamp duty fees.

For first time buyers buying a property within the range of &300,000 to &500,000, they will pay less stamp duty as the rate has been set at 5%. While buyers in this price range won’t avoid the tax completely, buying a home valued at &500,000 will now cost you &5,000 less.

How could this move affect the market?

While it is still very early days and it may be some time before we see a reaction from the market to this reform, some experts are suggesting that vendors will simply respond by raising the price of their home.

The Office for Budget Responsibility shared this opinion saying that “…the main gainers from the policy are people who already own property, not the FTBs themselves"

Other experts believe that house prices are the real problem and while the scrapping of stamp duty will save first-time buyers some money, it doesn’t mean that they will rush to buy a home now that this reform is in place.

Tom Kibasi of the Institue of Public Policy Research commented, saying “Unaffordable house prices are the problem, not Stamp Duty. For most young people, the stamp duty cut will make little difference. But it will help the beneficiaries of the bank of mum and dad.”

Top Tips To Help Sell Your Home This Winter

When selling a home, many homeowners tend to avoid certain seasons, as they are under the impression that the spring and summer months are the best time to put your home on the market. While the warmer months have historically seen more activity for property transactions, how you present your home makes a larger impression than when you put it on the market.

For those of you with your home already on the market or considering selling during the winter months, we discuss a few steps you can take to get more buyers in the door and prevent your home from looking as miserable as the weather does.

Kerb Appeal
This is something that’s important regardless of what season you put your home on the market, but especially vital in the winter months. First impressions count and the winter weather will do its best to make your home look a little messier than usual, so you need to stay on top of maintaining the exterior.

Keeping driveways and paths as clean as possible is the best start. There is bound to be all sorts of debris and leaves blowing around in the wind so just take a moment to tidy up every now and then. Weather like snow can be a positive at times as it may give your home a very cosy, festive look, however, be sure to tackle any hazardous icy pathways just to be safe.

When the days get colder and darker, we usually tend to forget that our gardens exist for a few months. However, if your home is on the market, a cleanup of the garden can go a long way. This doesn’t mean you have to get out there and begin renovating with new plants and features, but it does mean that the garden has to appear as if it hasn’t been forgotten about since the BBQ in August. Give anything that’s overgrown a trim and any outdoor furniture that’s been battered by the weather should be removed and hidden or replaced.

Make The Most Of The Situation
While it may feel like you’re fighting against dark days and dreadful weather to make your home more appealing to buyers, there are some ways that you can use this time of year to your advantage. The objective here is to make your home a haven of warmth so that buyers will want to come flooding in to escape the cold.

Lighting, similar to a property's kerb appeal, is another factor that’s vital regardless of the time of year, but when it starts to get darker around 4 pm, opening the curtains to try and flood the room with natural light isn’t really an option. However, you’re not completely out of luck as the right type of soft ambient lighting around the house can create the right sort of welcoming and cosy atmosphere that you’re looking for.

If you’re selling in December, there’s a good chance that you may have your Christmas decorations up already. This can also be a bonus in making your house look more appealing, but it’s best not to go too far. We all love the lights, trees and getting into the festive spirit, but it’s important not to clutter your home. One of the most important things to remember when selling a home is that the more spacious your home looks, the more appealing it is to buyers.

Keeping your property clean is also imperative. It may become tiring cleaning your home after every viewing, but it’s definitely worth it. With the weather being wet and windy, both you and buyers are certain to bring an amount of mess on the bottom of your shoes, so get a good doormat to prevent it travelling throughout the house and vacuum daily.

Finishing Touches
Finally, you should inspect your home for all of those odd jobs like creaky doors and small marks on the wall. A bit of paint and WD40 can do wonders in making your home seem like it’s all in working order. The bigger the list of small fixes for you, is a bigger list of small fixes for the buyer and only adds to the ‘reasons not to buy’ list.

Normally during the warmer months, we’d advise opening as many windows as possible to get the fresh air in, however, when its minus 2 outside that may not be an option, so try and introduce a pleasant scent such as fresh coffee or a subtle plug-in air freshener.

Also, the greenery outside may be turning brown, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a few decorations inside to make sure the home feels full of life.

4 out of 5 Homeowners are Confident House Prices Will Rise

The majority of UK homeowners are confident that property prices will rise over the next six months, a recent survey found.

Zoopla’s latest ‘Housing market sentiment survey’ has found that homeowners in the East Midlands and Scotland were especially confident that house prices will rise by April 2018, with over 80% of respondents from area saying so.

However, the country’s collective optimism has experienced a slight drop when compared to the last sentiment survey in April 2017, which found that 87% of British homeowners believed that house prices would continue to grow.

After the East Midlands and Scotland, the south west of England was the third most optimistic region, with three-quarters of homeowners expecting to see an increase in property values.

London, the north east and Yorkshire and the Humber are the three least confident regions, with 62%, 65% and 67% of respondents respectively, anticipating a rise in values.

It may come as a bit of a surprise that London homeowners are pessimistic about the future of the property market when house prices in the capital have consistently been on the rise over the last decade.

Whilst some areas of the country are experiencing some Brexit related doubt, the majority of homeowners in each region and the country as a whole are confident that the UK housing market will continue to see prices rise.