COVID stamp duty holiday buyers face moving onto higher rates

Homeowners who rushed to buy properties before the COVID stamp duty holiday expired are facing moving on to sharply higher mortgage rates. Data from UK Finance show that 6,220 fixed-rate deals of up to two years were taken out in September 2021, just before the tax break introduced to bolster the property market during the coronavirus pandemic was fully withdrawn. Yet mortgage rates have soared in the past two years, meaning these borrowers face a steep jump in repayments. UK Finance says a total of about 800,000 fixed-rate deals are due to expire in the second half of this year. Martin Stewart, the founder of London Money, the mortgage broker, said there would be a “wave of wake-up calls regarding the new mortgage pricing landscape”. 

Daily Mail (15/04/2023)   The Times (15/04/2023)