Homebuyers need to act fast to beat stamp duty holiday deadline

Homebuyers looking to take advantage of the Government’s stamp duty holiday have been warned to act quickly as a surge in demand has caused major delays in the property buying process. David Hollingworth of brokers L&C said getting a mortgage was taking about double the usual time as lenders struggled with the volume of business, and needed longer to review some applications. “To get a mortgage offer in normal times you are usually looking at a couple of weeks from the application,” he said, adding: “Now you could be expecting it to take at least a month, or possibly longer.” The high demand is one factor in the delays, but dealing with the coronavirus crisis is having an impact on other parts of the homebuying process. Hollingworth said L&C was already warning people about the end of the stamp duty holiday on 31 March. “Buying a home can take three months at the best of times – if you’re not in the process soon you can’t be banking on completing by the end of March.”

The Observer (08/11//2020)