Skipton Building Society is launching a mortgage range to support those who narrowly miss out completing before the stamp duty deadline and is also offering a stamp duty completion guarantee.
First-time buyers have less than two weeks to complete house purchases before stamp duty changes come into force and the Society is already seeing a 54% increase in people seeking to complete on their house purchase compared to March last year. Of those customers, 50% are first-time buyers desperately trying to get their purchase over the line and save on stamp duty.
To support those who don’t manage to complete their house purchase before the stamp duty deadline, Skipton is launching a new cashback product range from Monday 24th March.
The five-year fixed products, available up to 95% LTV, provide up to 1.50% cashback, which will be paid directly into their bank account 15 days following completion. The Society is also guaranteeing to complete all submitted cases where conveyancers have sent across certificates of title by no later than 25th March.
Research from Skipton Group’s Home Affordability Index reveals that the proportion of local authority areas in England where the average first-time buyer home falls in scope of stamp duty will almost quadruple overnight from 8.4% to 32.0% on 1st April. The reforms will add £6,250 to the cost of buying a first home worth £425,000.
Charlotte Harrison, CEO of home financing at Skipton Building Society, said: “Our teams will work round the clock, doing extra hours to help as many first-time buyers complete before the stamp duty changes. We’re doing all we can to help but appreciate how worrying it is for some to know that if their chain does not complete in time, they face additional extra costs.
“Our Home Affordability Index research shows that the country has a chronic lack of home affordability and is about to get even worse. The upcoming stamp duty reforms will further hurt first-time buyers and Skipton Group has been actively urging the government to maintain the current nil rate stamp duty threshold of £425,000 for people buying their first home.
“Today’s new mortgage launch is another example of our innovative product range designed to help more people get on the property ladder and supporting the next generation of homeowners.”
