"Torrent of clients" taking advantage of stamp duty holiday after floodgates opened

04 December 2020

Comment from John Phillips, national operations director of broker firm, Just Mortgages:

“Despite massive economic uncertainty the sector has performed admirably and, in such a difficult year, arrears remain historically low. Since the housing market reopened at the end of Q2, we had a torrent of clients looking to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday and move in Q3. We hit record numbers of applications and exchanges in September. Despite the second lockdown, the housing market remained open and is still performing well and we expect that to continue.

“UK Finance has predicted a strong first quarter in 2021 for purchase activity and we expect this to be the case. However, with the stamp duty holiday deadline looming, the market may begin to cool as we get to February and March. To keep things moving, we need to see more lenders returning to higher levels of loan to value (LTV). The lack of 90% LTV mortgages has been holding back the market for months as those with smaller deposits have been prevented from moving. We are still seeing thousands of eligible borrowers being turned away as, despite stable income and proof they can pay credit reliably, they don’t have the 15% deposit required to purchase their own home. While we have seen some lenders returning with 90% LTV products recently, we still need more.”