Reaction to stamp duty holiday

In the first half hour of the chancellor making the stamp duty holiday announcement, we saw traffic to Rightmove jump by 22%.

Tuesday 7th July was our busiest ever day with 7.7 million visits, likely boosted by the rumours of the stamp duty changes.

On Wednesday 8th July there were further records. These are all records since Rightmove launched twenty years ago:

• Visits to Rightmove hit 8.5 million, up from the previous day which was a record at 7.7 million
• There has been record demand already from buyers over the past few weeks. The number of people phoning and emailing estate agents about property for sale hit a new record on Wednesday, up 1% on the previous record set on 11^th June and up 93% on the same day in 2019
• Enquiries about new-build homes also hit a record, up 21% on the previous record set back on 11^th June
• Request from potential sellers to have their home valued hit a record high, up 35% on the previous record set back on 22^nd June and up 89% on the same day in 2019.

£500,000 and under properties in England on Rightmove

• There are over 510,000 properties that are £500,000 and under on Rightmove in total, making up 81% of all properties for sale in England
• Over 291,000 properties that are £500,000 or under are currently available for sale on Rightmove, making up 78% of all properties available for sale in England (i.e. they have not yet found a buyer)
• People enquiring about properties that are £500,000 or under on Rightmove makes up 84% of all buyer enquiries in England

Rightmove’s property expert Miles Shipside said: “This move will help to keep the nation and wider economy moving because keeping the current momentum going will help prevent destabilising falls in property prices as unemployment grows, and enable a quicker economic recovery. 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.”

Stamp duty savings by region