Stamp duty return could stall the market in 2010, says NAEA

Date:Thursday 12th November 2009
Author: Max Freedman

The housing market could stall in the new year unless the stamp duty holiday is extended, according to the National Association for Estate Agents (NAEA).

President of the NAEA Gary Smith has warned that "first-time buyers are the critical foundation level of the housing market" and urged the government to extend the January 1st 2010 deadline.

Calling the threshold reduction a "short-sighted" policy, Mr Smith hoped that the government would use "common sense" and continue with the new terms indefinitely.

Following the release of the latest figures from the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML), coupled with the NAEA's own, he said that the "tentative stages of recovery" were evident.

There were 6,200 people buying their first property in September who escaped the tax, after buying a house valued between the original threshold of £125,000 and the raised level of £175,000, according to the CML's figures. This is in addition to the 7,800 buyers whose property price was below £125,000.

First-time buyer numbers rose to 22 per cent of the whole market in October 2009 according to the NAEA's research, compared to ten per cent of all buyers at the same time in the previous year.