A Bedfordshire housebuilder has released a selection of new homes for sale across the county which buyers can purchase without paying a penny in stamp duty.
The properties, which Linden Homes is currently building at developments in Biddenham, Blunham and Cardington, will be completed before 31 March 2021 – the final day of the stamp duty holiday.
This means that buyers who purchase one of these homes before that date will pay zero stamp duty, as all the properties are priced below £500,000.
Introduced by the Government in July, the stamp duty holiday has seen the threshold at which house buyers start paying stamp duty temporarily increase from £125,000 to £500,000. The measure is a boost to buyers at all levels of the property market, but especially second-steppers, as first-time buyers already benefited from a higher threshold of £300,000.
The properties just released at Linden Homes’ Bedfordshire developments include one and two-bedroom apartments and two, three and four-bedroom houses, ranging in price from £165,000 to £480,000.
All these homes are due to be completed before the end of February 2021 which means buyers will also be able to benefit from the existing Help to Buy scheme before it changes from April next year.
The scheme enables buyers to purchase a new home with just a five per cent deposit and 75 per cent mortgage, with the remaining 20 per cent being provided as an equity loan which is interest-free for the first five years.
Currently, Help to Buy* is available on new homes worth up to £600,000 and can be used by second-steppers as well as first-time buyers. However, from 1 April 2021, the scheme will be exclusively for first-time buyers and eligible only on properties which fall below new regional price caps – this will be £407,400 for the East of England, which includes Bedfordshire.
To use the existing scheme, buyers must legally complete the purchase of their home by 31 March 2021. Construction work must also be completed on the property by 28 February 2021 for it to qualify.
Hannah Dorner, Sales Manager for Linden Homes Midlands, said: “By releasing these homes onto the market now, we are giving house-hunters in Bedfordshire the chance to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday and potentially save thousands of pounds on their purchase.
“A customer who buys one of our four-bedroom detached houses priced at £480,000 will pay zero stamp duty if they complete the purchase by 31 March 2021, compared to £14,000 if they buy after the deadline.
“Similarly, the fact these homes are on-track to be completed before the Help to Buy construction deadline provides a final opportunity for second-steppers to benefit from the scheme and gives first-time buyers a greater number of options in terms of the range of properties they can purchase with just a five per cent deposit.”
Linden Homes, which is part of the newly formed Vistry Group, is currently building at St Marys at Kings Field in Biddenham, Hastings Gardens in Blunham and Falcons Lodge in Cardington.
For more information about the homes available at these developments, visit lindenhomes.co.uk/eastmidlands.
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Contact: Lisa Jolly, Liberty PR, 07752 393125; lisa@libertypr.co.uk
