It has been reported that more buyers are looking for homes in Milton Keynes now that the Government has made changes to stamp duty.
Last week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that buyers will pay no stamp duty on properties up to £500,000. The introduction of this measure, which lasts until March 31 2021, means that house hunters could save up to £15,000.
Rightmove has compared property enquiries in the days following the announcement (July 8th to 12th) to the same period the week before.
And, the data revealed that Milton Keynes has seen the biggest increase in buyer enquiries - 136% to be exact.
The second-highest increase was in Watford (109%), then Harrow (103%), then Chelmsford (95%), and Ilford (91%).
Rightmove reported that nationwide, the biggest jump in buyer enquiries was for homes that sit just under the threshold, with there being a 49% increase in demand for homes priced between £400,000 and £500,000.
In the South East, the average asking price for a house is £419,595, according to Rightmove, which means that the average saving on stamp duty is £10,980.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove’s property expert, believes that the stamp duty holiday will "enable a quicker economic recovery". He added: "Lockdown prevented 175,000 would be sellers from coming to market so we hope this Stamp Duty holiday will provide the spur for those missing movers to come to market. They will find there’s currently record demand for their properties from prospective buyers, with Rightmove enquiries to agents now double what they were before lockdown.
“Home-movers will be grateful that the changes come into effect straight away so they don’t have to delay their plans, and what we could see now is people rushing to get a price agreed before some sellers put their prices up in the hope people will be able to pay more because of the tax savings.”
