Is it still possible to buy a new home and beat the March 31 stamp duty deadline?

During October’s Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that temporary increases to stamp duty thresholds that were put in place in 2022, would end on March 31, 2025.

Currently, homebuyers don’t pay stamp duty on properties below £250,000, but this will drop to the previous level of £125,000 at the start of April. The threshold requiring first-time buyers to pay stamp duty will also fall from £425,000 to £300,000.

In the Budget, the Chancellor also increased the stamp duty surcharge for second homes and buy to let properties from three per cent to five per cent overnight.

Patrick McCutcheon, head of residential at Dacre, Son & Hartley, said: “The next couple of months are going to be busy for anyone working in residential property including estate agents, mortgage brokers, surveyors and those in conveyancing.

“We’ve certainly seen a surge of buyers who want to complete their purchases before stamp duty costs increase and there are lots that have set the end of March as their deadline, even though a surprising number of these only made offers during January.

“However, for anyone else who wants to take advantage of the reduced stamp duty thresholds, who hasn’t yet had an offer accepted, the clock is ticking. They’ll need to act fast to have any chance of completing a purchase before the deadline, as well as finding a vendor who is happy to work to their timescale.”

He added: “In addition to stamp duty giving buyers extra motivation, we could see further interest rate cuts by the Bank of England in the early part of this year...which will help to further stimulate the spring market.”

Earlier this week, property website Rightmove said the number of new properties coming to market, the volume of buyers contacting estate agents and the number of sales being agreed are ahead of January last year.

It predicted that first-time buyers in less expensive parts of England will largely be unaffected by the stamp duty change, but it said the £300,000 threshold from April will act as a drag on the important bottom-of-the-ladder market in some more expensive areas to buy.

Some new year sellers may also find that they have been too optimistic on their initial pricing and get left on the shelf in favour of more competitively-priced neighbours, the website added.

The research was released as property website Zoopla predicted that housing markets in Scotland and northern England will have the strongest prospects for house price growth in 2025. In England, Leeds is the second strongest market behind Newcastle, it said.

Claire Kendall, of Richard Kendall estate agents, based in Wakefield, said she had seen instructions rise by 16.5 per cent in January, with a large number of people ‘highly motivated’ to move home in the first six months of the year.

She added: "There will inevitably be a rush for the end of March before the stamp duty relief threshold change for first time buyers, however those hoping to put their home on the market in January or those who have yet to secure a sale will be hard pushed to take advantage, given that in 2024 it took an average of 17 weeks from point of sale to exchange and complete on a home in Wakefield.”

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Mark Manning, managing director of Manning Stainton, said: “We’re 15 per cent up on new buyer registrations compared to last January. He added: “We’ve put measures in place to make sure that in March our move managers, who are directly responsible for helping progress sales through to completion, are available.

“If both parties are quick it’s still more than possible to get a deal through before the stamp duty deadline, but it’s going to be rare.”

Simon Blyth, of Simon Blyth Estate Agents, also added a note of caution: “I think there’s an upswing in the market and lots of people are viewing and putting offers in,” he said.

"Generally speaking I think most of the people making offers are being relaxed over the deadline because they don’t think it’ll happen before the end of March.”

He added: “Agents will have to be careful if they’re encouraging people to make an offer and complete by the April deadline because if it doesn’t happen they’ll end up renegotiating, which adds to the possibility of it all falling down.”