What a difference a week makes
Prudence Ivey meets young London buyers who say the stamp duty holiday has changed their lives
THREE 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.
MILES AND FRANCES TOMKINS, BOTH 31
New Eltham, Greenwich
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.
“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 the vendor took it off the market at once.
“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.”
The stamp duty holiday has given us £15,000 and Frances can now take full maternity leave. A lot of pressure’s been lifted