Chancellor Rishi Sunak's announcement of the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme launching April 2021 will help current homeowners as well as first-time buyers looking to buy a house worth up to £600,000. So far several of the country’s largest lenders including Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, Barclays and HSBC will be offering these 95% mortgages from next month, with more lenders expected to follow.
Similar to the UK-wide Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme launched in 2013, which helped more than 100,000 households across the UK to buy a home, the government is hoping that this new scheme will, as the Prime Minister said, "turn generation rent into generation buy."
Accompanying this news was the Welsh Government's extension of the LTT (Land Transaction Tax) holiday, which was due to end March 31st. The temporary increase to the nil rate band of LTT for residential property transactions has now been extended to June 30th 2021.
This means the nil band for transactions:
- before 1 July 2021, will be up to and including £250,000
- on and after 1 July 2021, will be up to and including £180,000
As per the government guidance, there will not be any transitional rules, and a transaction will need to complete before 1 July 2021 to use the temporary increase to the nil rate band. That means that waiting too long to take advantage of this offer could result in dissapointment should any delays happen in the buying process. We strongly advise that you get the ball rolling asap to make the most of those savings! If you have a property to sell, get in touch to arrange your no obligation property appraisal, or if you're looking to buy register your interest early and take advantage of our expert mortage advice.
Posted on: 4 March 2021
