Four young buyers tell Homes & Property how the new stamp duty holiday, introduced in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s summer mini Budget a week ago, transformed their lives at a stroke — just as they were about to sign on the dotted line.
They are among the lucky Londoners who have suddenly found themselves with a much-needed life-changing bonus of up to £15,000.
A family home in New Eltham, Greenwich
Miles and Frances Tomkins, both 31
When Miles Tomkins, a project manager for a bank, and his wife Frances, who works in banking client services, had their first baby, Noah, in February this year, they planned to stay put in their two-bedroom terrace house in New Eltham, south-east
London.
However, Miles’s grandmother was convinced their home was no longer big enough for their growing family.
Miles and Frances saved £15,000 upsizing to a family home (Daniel Hambury)
“She was looking on all the
property websites during lockdown and she found a five-bedroom semi-detached house for sale, five doors away from the house I grew up in, in New Eltham where my parents still live,” says Miles.
The couple viewed the property in the first week of June, shortly after coronavirus lockdown restrictions lifted. They fell in love with it and put in an offer for the full £575,000 asking price on the spot, on condition that the vendor took it off the market immediately.
“She had other viewings lined up that day and I knew it would be snapped up by people who’d been waiting for lockdown to be lifted,” says Miles. “It was definitely at the top of our budget and we were worried about overstretching ourselves, especially as we’d be selling at a discount.”
On the advice of their mortgage broker at SPF Private Clients, the couple had listed their property at £375,000 rather than the £400,000 the estate agent estimated they could get if they were willing to wait.
They found a buyer within weeks, agreeing just in time to benefit from the stamp duty holiday.
They will now pay only £3,750 tax, rather than the £18,750 they’d expected to be liable for.
“It’s given us £15,000,” says Miles. “When we first bought, we were talking about Frances going back to work sooner because we were due to exchange just as the paid part of her maternity leave ended. The money has given us breathing space — we know she can stay home with Noah for the entire year now.
"We’ll spend some of it on redecorating, too. Our priority is our son, so we want to make his room as nice as possible for him, which we wouldn’t have been able to do without that extra money. A lot of pressure has been lifted.”
A new-build flat in Purley, Croydon
Yasmin Bunn, 26
“I had spent three years renovating a house in Sidcup with my boyfriend into my forever home — and then we split up,” says recruitment consultant Yasmin Bunn, 26.
Her ex-boyfriend bought her out of their home and Yasmin moved back in with her mother in Sevenoaks for lockdown.
Yasmin found a home in a new development in Croydon and saved £11,000
When the property market reopened, she went to view a new-build flat in Kenley in
Croydon and fell in love with the development, but didn’t want to put an offer in right away because it was the only place she had considered.
Nine grotty apartments and a few weeks later, she went back to Property Experts, the original developer, but the flat she’d had her eye on had been sold. Instead the developer showed her around a new site in Purley called West Hill.
Yasmin put in an offer on a two-bedroom flat for £420,000 using the Government’s Help to Buy equity loan scheme, meaning she only had to put down a five per cent deposit.
“The developer has been so kind, saying they want to make this my dream home because they know I’ve had a difficult year,” says Yasmin. “They even sourced things I showed them from my last home, like a similar granite worktop.”
The developer phoned her after the stamp duty holiday was announced to let her know that she was about to save £11,000.
“To have Help to Buy and now a stamp duty holiday is amazing, I feel so lucky,” says Yasmin.
“To buy alone has been daunting, no one else in my family has ever owned property and I earned and saved every single penny I’ve put into this flat.
“I’ve been working since I was 14 so I didn’t do a lot of those fun teenage things. Now I’ve got some extra money and my independence.”
Buying a two-bedroom home in Cheltenham
Jessica Bishop, 28
Renting in North Kensington, Jessica Bishop had had an offer accepted and was about to exchange on her first property, a two-bedroom house in
Cheltenham that she is
buying with her brother William, 26, who works for housebuilder Persimmon.
The siblings are paying £355,000 for the house, meaning they will now save £2,750 in stamp duty. The previous stamp duty-free threshold for
first-time buyers was £300,000.
Jessica, who bought with her brother in Cheltenham, will put the stamp duty savings towards the costs of buying and furnishings
“It was really lucky timing for us because we’ve been looking since February, so could have missed out,” says Jessica, who works at estate agent Knight Frank. “But my brother lives in Cheltenham and knows it well, and we had our hearts set on a house on a particular street in Montpellier, which is a really pretty area a bit like Notting Hill, so it took a little while for the right property to come up for sale.”
Half the stamp duty saving will help them with the costs of buying — solicitor’s fees, surveyor and bank charges. The rest they will put towards furnishings.
Now they are on the ladder they plan to develop and extend, creating a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with loft and an open-plan kitchen and living space. They expect the work to take six months and cost £75,000.
“Another house on the street did the work we want to do and was valued at 40 per cent more. Buying at this level outside London gives us the money to do the work. The stamp duty saving is a really welcome, unexpected boost.”
A country escape in Wiltshire
Ellie Rees and Rex Siney, both 43
Ellie Rees and Rex Siney, both 43, bought a flat in Holloway, north London when they set up Brickworks, the design-led ethical estate agency they run. They had a baby and then another and so moved for more space to a rented house in Harringay, keeping the Holloway flat to let out, to help with their rent.
With a young family they craved a bolt hole in the countryside, but because they already owned a property, they would be liable for the three per cent second home surcharge on the stamp duty.
Ellie Rees and Rex Siney bought a country bolthole in the Nadder Valley, Wiltshire
They had found a small property in the Nadder Valley in Wiltshire for £390,000 that they loved — but once lockdown hit there was so much uncertainty around their business, they could not consider buying it.
However, when lockdown was lifted they reassessed their position and felt Brickworks would survive the pandemic.
And when the stamp duty holiday was announced, they realised that the tax bill for their country retreat would be slashed from £21,000 to £11,000.
Sadly, Ellie’s father died during lockdown. He left her some money, which she and Rex put towards their deposit on the Wiltshire property.
“Out of something so horrible we have this legacy from him that will have huge non-monetary value to our family, to get away from London and spend time together,” says Ellie.
“Combined with the stamp duty holiday, it has made it possible for us to buy this little gem for our family.”