Buy-to-let investors rush to complete before stamp duty rise

Buy-to-let landlords, estate agents, mortgage lenders and solicitors firms are locked in a last-minute battle to complete property deals before a stamp duty rise that takes effect at midnight on Friday.

Following changes announced by George Osborne in November last year, anyone buying a home that is not their main residence will have to pay a 3% stamp duty surcharge from Friday.

The introduction of the measure, designed to put a brake on the runaway buy-to-let market, was delayed until 1 April, to give those in the middle of existing purchases time to complete before the new tax charge.

From midnight on Friday, the stamp duty payable on a second home sold in England and Wales for £200,000 will rise from £1,500 to £7,500. Estate agents have reported a frenzy of activity as buyers rush to beat the higher charge.

Paul Smith, chief executive of Britain’s biggest estate agent chain, Haart, said branches had had a flood of calls over the last week.

“In London we have seen a 35% increase in exchange activity in the last week as buyers rush to complete in time for the stamp duty deadline. We’ve been especially busy in north and east London, which are very popular areas for buy to let. Outside of London and the home counties the effect of the stamp duty change has been less noticeable.”

He predicted many deals would be running late into the evening, and that some would fall short of the deadline, particularly where the solicitor did not have access to the funds to complete the purchase.

Rob Hailstone, of the Bold Legal Group, painted a similar picture, saying it had been ridiculously busy as buyers rushed to beat the deadline.

Martyn Baum, the president of the National Association of Estate Agents, was similarly predicting a crazy day.

“We’ve all got a bottleneck, and a huge amount of deals before the deadline. I’ve heard of estate agents and conveyancers staying open till 10pm, and then opening again at 5am this morning.”

Experts said the problems had been compounded by the fact that some of the fine detail was only announced in the budget just over two weeks ago. The Council of Mortgage Lenders has predicted a distortion in the market as buyers rush to beat the deadline.

David Hollingworth, of mortgage brokers London & Country, predicted many buyers would be “biting their nails”, as they attempted to complete their purchase before the deadline.

“We certainly saw a spike in buy-to-let purchase applications after the announcement last November, particularly in January and February this year. I expect that those mulling over a purchase sharpened their focus and brought forward their plans.”

He said overall the industry was waiting to see how Osborne’s measures plus changes to the way buy-to-let investors are taxed affect the market in the longer term.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) has already warned that the clampdown on buy-to-let investors will have a major affect on the market.

“We’re about to see supply nose-dive, demand sky-rocket and rent prices go through the roof. The introduction of the new stamp duty charges is set to push the private rental sector into a state of despair,” said David Cox, Arla’s managing director.