Nockolds Resources

Stamp Duty Exemption for First Time Buyers

The Government's exemption of Stamp Duty for first time buyers finishes on 25th March 2012.

You can save up to £2,500 in Stamp Duty if you complete by March 25th.

For more information contact our Moving Home team on movinghome@nockolds.co.uk or 01279 755 777.

For more information on Stamp Duty clike here.

 

Jo Rogers (profile) Jo RogersMichael Stark (profile) Michael Stark Wednesday 11th January 2012
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Budget 2011 - First Time Buyer scheme announced

Budget 2011 - First Time Buyer scheme announced

The New First Time Buyers Scheme

A buoyant property market is dependent upon there being a sufficient number of first time buyers.  Because many lenders require them to have a deposit of up to 25% of the value of the property first time, buyers have been in short supply since the credit crunch.  In an attempt to kick start the housing market the Coalition Government announced a First Buy scheme in this year's budget.  This is joint Government and House Builders scheme that would see first time buyers eligible for an equity loan of 20% of the value of a new property.  10% of the equity would be provided by the Government and 10% by the House Builder and a further 5% of the property’s value would need to be provided by way of a deposit by the first time buyer.  The equity loan would be interest free for 5 years and would have to be repaid when the house was sold.

It is felt that the scheme is quite modest because it will only apply to first time buyers wishing to buy new homes, only 10,000 first time buyers will be eligible and the scheme will only be open for one year.

For more details or to discuss how Nockolds can help you move home, please contact movinghome@nockolds.co.uk

Michael Stark (profile) Michael Stark Thursday 24th March 2011
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HIPS's Replacement

HIP REPLACEMENT

One of the first acts of the incoming coalition Government has been to abolish the much maligned Home Information Pack (HIP).  HIPs were first introduced on the 1 August 2007 with the intention of speeding up the home buying process, increasing transparency and reducing the number of sales that fell through.  The initial cost to the seller was anything up to £500 which had to be paid out before a property could be put on the market.  There was undoubtedly a reluctance on some people to pay this money and put their house on the market without knowing if it would sell.  The packs themselves quickly went out of date and often contained incomplete local search results provided by private search companies rather than the Local Authority.

Interestingly the number of properties coming onto the market increased substantially during the weeks immediately following the abolition of HIPs.

However, one element of the HIP, the Energy Performance Certificate has been retained.  Every property that is sold must have an EPC providing current and potential energy proficiency ratings with recommendations as to how the energy proficiency can be improved.  Fortunately these EPCs do not have to be in place before a property has been marketed so long as they have been ordered, but surely it would be sensible to only insist on an EPC being obtained once a property has actually been sold.

Michael Stark (profile) Michael Stark Thursday 17th June 2010
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