Be careful of that last minute chase to save stamp duty costs
The end of the year sees the UK governments stand duty reduction come to an end with properties valued between £125,000 and £175,000 attracting a 1% stamp duty charge from 1 January 2010. Currently the UK government has exempted property purchases within this specific range in an attempt to try and inject some confidence and interest into the UK housing market.
While there is no doubt that the reduction in stamp duty has attracted the attention of many homebuyers across the UK there is a feeling that an opportunity may have been lost because of the reluctance of UK mortgage lenders to increase liquidity. It is only now that UK mortgage lenders are encouraging homebuyers to speed up their purchases to avoid the 1% stamp duty payment, something which homebuyers need to be very careful about. Without doubt, the acquisition of a property will be one of the biggest and most stressful transactions which you will complete in your life and you need to be sure that everything is correct and in order.
Those who are potentially blinded by the opportunity of saving 1% stamp duty by completing before the end of the year may well live to pay the price if they have rushed in and acquired a property which was possibly not "100% right" for them.
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