House sale tax fears

Thousands of home buyers could be in for tax bills they had not budgeted for as house sales already agreed miss a deadline to make stamp duty savings, according to industry experts.

Rightmove say up to 100,0000agreedsalescould be hit when the temporary stampdutyholidayendson March31–becauseitisnow taking over four months on average for a sale to be completed.

The stamp duty threshold for residential property was temporarily raised to £500,000 in July - but from April 1 it will revert to £125,000.

Tim Bannister of Rightmove said: “Processing so many transactions in less than three months is made even tougher by the new lockdown restrictions,Covid-19sicknessand home-schoolingisreducing capacity in conveyancing, legal searches and mortgage lending."