Stamp duty extension should be seen as chance to get existing cases over the line

And the numbers speak for themselves. The latest figures from HM Revenue & Customs show that transactions hit 121,640 in January, up by a massive 24% on the same point last year. The fact that house price growth has rocketed over the same period, to reach new record highs, isn’t a coincidence either.

However, that burgeoning demand has come with some downsides too. Conveyancers have been overwhelmed with cases, particularly as we have approached that original deadline of the end of March, and that has unfortunately translated into delays.

Brokers don’t need me to tell them how frustrating these delays can be for everyone involved in a house purchase, and not just those hoping to get the keys to their next home.

Sadly, there have been times when that frustration has boiled over into aggression and even abuse of the solicitor firms handling the case. This is on top of near constant chasing by some estate agents, who are adding to an already pressurised situation. We all understand how enthusiastic brokers and their clients are to get those transactions over the line, but it’s not helpful for this to boil over into something less pleasant.

Of course, the stamp duty holiday is no longer going to finish at the end of March, with Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announcing in the Budget that the holiday will be extended by six months. This is obviously fantastic news for those would-be buyers who were facing a race-against-the-clock to complete their purchase before ending up with a larger tax bill. Estate agent, Keller Williams UK, says 576,093 deals will have enjoyed a stamp duty saving by the time the holiday finally ends, which equates to 77% of all transactions.

This extension has been accompanied by the launch of the 95% LTV mortgage guarantee scheme, which has the potential to dramatically improve the options open to those buyers who have more modest deposits but don’t want to give up on their buying dream.

It would be really positive if this stamp duty extension was viewed first and foremost as an opportunity for conveyancers to tackle their existing caseload, to ensure that those cases where nerves were frayed over possibly missing the original deadline are instead completed in good time. It’s a chance to get service standards back to their usual high level, rather than a green light to continue the desperate rush that has been seen over the last few months.

After all, the pressure on conveyancers has been little short of extraordinary. It wasn’t unusual for legal firms to cancel all leave in the approach to that initial March deadline, and the hours put in by these firms in order to get these cases completed simply isn’t sustainable. The strain has already started taking its toll on the mental health of these legal firms.

Rightmove has said that currently the average time for a seller to find a buyer is 65 days nationally, and it estimates that it is currently taking a further 126 days to go through the legal process to completion. Based on this, it says, sellers should be looking to come to market by 23rd March if they want to make sure their buyers can make use of the tapering end to the stamp duty holiday by the end of September.

Being realistic this may not be what happens, and people will see September as an achievable deadline well beyond March, without fully understanding the timelines involved in the process. Rather than alleviate the pressures on conveyancers, therefore, the combination of the stamp duty holiday extension and the launch of the mortgage guarantee scheme may in fact lead to the opposite, with legal firms coming under even greater pressure as their workloads escalate once again.

Whatever comes next, this has been an important reminder of the need to take a more understanding approach, and appreciate the different pressures our various peers in the house buying process are under.