Autumn budget 2024
Following yesterdays budget please read our blog below.
Following yesterday’s budget, we thought we would share our initial thoughts on the road ahead for the sales market.
You will be aware that this was the first Labour budget in 14 years, and it was bound to herald a seismic shift from Conservative policy.
Before the budget, there had been speculation with regards to Capital gains tax, hikes in stamp duty, national insurance etc and how this may affect inflation, interest rates and ultimately property prices.
As we are sure you can appreciate it is early days, however, in our opinion the budget is quite favourable for the property market.
As expected, the Chancellor has increased the SDLT stamp duty surcharge by a full 2%, from 3% to 5% which is on top of the standard rate, however, this is only for second homes, which some may feel is justified.
This of course is not the best of news for buy to let investors, and there has been some initial panic from parties who are in this position however, it does remain to be seen as to whether this will affect the market in the long term. We are hoping that the scale of the increase is unlikely to deter landlords considering the long term gains of this asset class.
The good news is there has been no change on the SDLT for most people’s principal residence and CGT remains unchanged. This is a huge relief and comes slightly unexpectedly, as many thought Capital gains tax was about to change.
With regards to interest rates, the economic expectations are they will fall slightly slower than expected, but the trend should be downwards.
In all, we would say a mixed bag for the housing market, but overall better than many speculated.
With Christmas looming, the sales market for 2024 will start to slow down over the next few weeks, but we remain extremely positive for 2025.
So if you are thinking of buying or selling your property, please do call us, you may be pleasantly surprised.