Stamp duty cut boosts house sales

HOUSE sales increased by 15.6 per cent month- on- month in August across the UK – but transactions were still down by 16.3 per cent compared with the same month in 2019, figures show.

HM Revenue and Customs said about 81,280 sales took place in

August. In July, the threshold for stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland was raised to £ 500,000, with cuts also brought in in Scotland and Wales. The report said: “It’s likely early impacts have been captured within provisional August 2020 transactions statistics.”