As many buyers will be aware the current stamp duty holidays are starting to draw to a close.
Back in early July 2020 due to the pandemic the government announced a stamp duty holiday for people buying their primary residence up to £500,000 until the end of March. This was extended until the end of June and till the end of September up to £250,000.
Although it may now be too late to purchase and take advantage of the £500,000 holiday, there is still time to capitalise on the saving us to £250,000 if you complete by the end of September!
If you are looking at moving call your local office now!
Under the governments ‘Mortgage Guarantee Scheme’ 95% loan to value mortgages are back.
This scheme compliments the already successful ‘Help to Buy’ scheme for new build properties.
With many lenders now on board this should open home ownership up even more to a generation of first time buyers. Especially in East Norfolk & North East Suffolk where properties are more affordable!
Call your local Aldreds office now to see how we can help you buy your first home.
Aldreds now offer video tours as a no cost upgrade with all our new instructions.
These give buyers a great initial impression of our properties as well as increasing website hits and activity on the property portals.
Call your local Aldreds office now for your free market appraisal.
It has been just over a year since estate agency resumed after the first lockdown.
All estate agency activity ceased between Boris’ lockdown announcement on the 23rd March 2020 and mid May. During this period no house viewings or valuations could take place. Mortgage surveys were cancelled and house moved that hadn’t exchanged contracts were put on ice. We were available and working from home the housing market entered effective hibernation.
We tentatively reopened our operations on 18th May 2020. For the first few weeks people seemed to nervously return to the housing market and things started to snow ball through June with activity, valuation and sales increasing.
July heralded the much celebrated stamp duty holiday announcement up to £500,000 initially until 31st March 2021. This saw activity surge and by the late summer/autumn the housing market was motoring along with record levels of sales as buyers clambered to take advantage of the tax break and as pent up demand from the lockdown returned.
Covid cases went up through the autumn and this resulted in another lockdown through November, however, this time as with January’s lockdown the housing market remained fully open.
Early in 2021 the stamp duty holiday up to £500,000 was extended until 30th June 2021 and to £250,000 until 30th September 2021 and this again caused a spike in demand and activity through March and April!
As we continue to move through 2021 and as the world slowly starts to move back to normality we expect demand for housing in Norfolk & North Suffolk to stay strong driven by low interest rates, high demand and people leaving the south east as working patterns change.
An interesting story is emerging from Cornwall. A seller who remains anonymous has rejected a higher offer from a second home purchaser in favour of selling to a local couple who are buying for the first time.
If a seller gets multiple offers it is down to them who they sell to. Most sellers are obviously influenced by the highest offer but many will take other factors in to account such as the position of the buyers, their ability to proceed quickly and even who they liked the most! The estate agent will often offer advice, however, the decision is always the sellers.
