Stamp duty ‘holiday’ spurs action

HOUSE hunters made a record number of visits to a property website as a stamp duty holiday was announced by the Chancellor last week.

Rightmove had 8.5 million visits last Wednesday – up from a previous record of 7.7 million on Tuesday as anticipation about the announcement grew.

Nationwide Building Society also said its mortgage affordability calculator saw a 61 per cent increase in usage last Wednesday compared with a week earlier.

As people reacted to the Chancellor’s statement, over 41,000 people visited the mortgage section of Nationwide’s website. Nationwide said it saw a particular spike in traffic when Rishi Sunak was on his feet delivering his statement.

Mr Sunak announced that buyers in England will pay no stamp duty on the first £500,000 of their purchase when they move home. The stamp duty holiday will run until March 31 2021.

At that time, traffic to Nationwide’s mortgage pages jumped by 70 per cent compared with a week earlier. Another 70 per cent spike happened on Wednesday evening at around 7pm, perhaps when households had time to discuss potential house moves.