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Property sales soared to record-breaking levels in June

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
21/07/2021

The end of the Stamp Duty holiday resulted in a surge of sales last month, as buyers rushed to meet the deadline

There were 198,240 UK residential transactions in June 2021, according to HMRC.

This was the highest number on record and a staggering 219.1% higher than June 2020, and 74.1% higher than May 2021.

The surge in sales was due to buyers rushing to complete their purchases before the Stamp Duty holiday deadline at the end of the month, causing a huge spike.

Paul Stockwell, chief commercial officer at Gatehouse Bank, said: “This record is likely to stand for a long time as it reflects a perfect storm of demand, driven by locked-down buyers seeking more space, and the introduction of significant tax savings through the government’s stamp duty holiday.

“Transactions in June even surpassed March, the original stamp duty deadline which was pushed back to June 30, suggesting that the scheme’s extension gave the property industry the breathing space it needed to process the surge of transactions.

“With the most significant stamp duty savings behind us, July’s figures are set to drop significantly compared to June, but it will mark the start of transactions beginning to stabilise.”

Andrew Southern, chairman of property developer Southern Grove, agreed, adding that it’s possible ‘we will never witness anything like this again in our lifetime’.

He said: “As the Stamp Duty holiday is phased out in the coming months, we can expect the year-on-year growth to become less pronounced.

“But the demand for larger, quality homes, particularly in commuter towns around the Home Counties, remains strong and any nosedive in transactions is probably still a long way off.”