Yahoo Finance Longer stamp duty holiday ‘will help older people move’
The stamp duty holiday must be extended to help older vulnerable homeowners who cannot move during lockdown, campaigners have warned.
Several property firms and trade bodies have written a joint letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak calling for a six-month extension of the stamp duty holiday to boost downsizing and free up housing supply. The letter called on the extension, if not for all movers then at least for older people moving to housing more suited to their needs.
Signatories included trade bodies the Association of Retirement Housing Managers, the Retirement Housing Group UK, the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Civil Servants Pensioners’ Alliance campaign group and the International Longevity Centre, a charity.
In July, Mr Sunak temporarily raised the nil-rate stamp duty band from £125,000 to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland, meaning buyers can save up to £15,000 if they can complete sales by March 31.
Stamp duty prohibits buyers at the top of the housing ladder from downsizing, the letter argued. The holiday has been a “tremendous success” because it has supported many retirement housing moves, it argued.
In turn, these moves have helped to keep people safe during the pandemic and have supported the NHS. Moving to retirement housing in later life saves the NHS an estimated £3,500 per person per year.
But the high Covid case count and the national lockdown has had a particularly heavy impact on older homemovers, who have taken extra precautions during this period, the letter said.
All buyers and sellers face are grappling with massive delays because increased demand and the pressures of working from home have overwhelmed mortgage lenders, conveyancers, surveyors and local authorities. But some vulnerable homeowners have had to put moves on hold altogether because of the risks of coronavirus.
They will not be able to move before the March 31 stamp duty deadline and, after this date, homeowners will no longer have a financial incentive to do so. In turn, this will prevent homes being freed up for younger buyers moving up the housing ladder.
“The risk is that all the wider benefits that come from older people downsizing into specialist retirement housing will be brought to a premature halt at a time when these sort of moves need to be encouraged if we are to help people remain healthy and independent for as long as possible into old age,” the joint letter said.
John Tonkiss, of McCarthy Stone, a retirement homes developer, said: “We know that stamp duty has prevented millions of people from downsizing in the past. In turn this has stopped young people and families from moving into their vacated homes.” Extending the tax holiday would “unblock the housing chain”, boosting transactions and Treasury revenues, Mr Tonkiss said.
“We urge the Government to reap these benefits.”
MPs will today debate a petition calling for a six-month extension to the stamp duty holiday, which has more than 135,000 signatures.
A Treasury spokesman said: “The temporary stamp duty cut is helping to protect hundreds of thousands of jobs which rely on the property market by stimulating economic activity. Its time limited nature is what has encouraged people to take advantage of the scheme.”
