Photographer: Jason Alden / Bloomberg
Photographer: Jason Alden / Bloomberg
UK house prices fell in January as sellers tried to speed up discounted deals before a temporary cut of a hefty tax on home purchases ends – although many deals will miss the deadline anyway, Move right.
The UK’s largest real estate website dropped the average asking price by 0.9% in the month, apparently wanting to sell the movers until the last minute. Of the 613,000 agreements already envisaged, however, it expects about 100,000 to close after the March 31 cut-off point, meaning their tax bills will get up to as much as $ 15,000 ($ 20,000) larger than they would have.
Although operations in the first few weeks of January usually set the tone for the rest of the year, the closure of Covid markets and the stimulating stimulation of stamp duty are likely to skew the figures in 2021.
Tim Bannister, director of real estate data at Rightmove, said the biggest difference between Britain’s first closure last year and the one it is now in was that the housing market was open this time around, so ‘change in housing priorities can be more easily applied word ‘.
As more people work remotely and homeschool their children, they have sought homes with more space – inside and out – which has lifted the market after the initial shock of the pandemic, despite the biggest economic downturn in three centuries. The number of agreed sales last year was a tenth in 2019.
Matthew Smith, director of sales and leasing at Thornley Groves, Manchester, said the desire to expand the suburbs is the biggest driver of sales.
“I do not think that the high levels of activity we are currently seeing are solely the result of the tax holiday,” he said. “It simply gave people the impetus to be vigilant about moving home, which in turn led to greater demand.”