Scottish Property News

Stamp Duty Holiday coming to an end - estate agents expect rush of sales

Buyers can escape stamp duty on any property priced at £175,000 or below - but only until January 1 2010, when a 1% rate kicks in on properties between £125,000 and £250,000.

Meanwhile Slater's managing director Michael Luck says: "Buyer demand has increased over the last few months as house prices have begun to stabilise."

According to Moneyfacts, mortgage lenders are "slowly returning to the mortgage market". The number of residential mortgages available in the market reached a low of 1,209 products at the beginning of April, a 90% drop from the peak of 11,951 available in July 2007. That had crept up to 1,392 products at the start of September.

But Michelle Slade at Moneyfacts says: "Despite the cost of funding continuing to fall, lenders continue to be slow to react. The lack of any real competition in the market is still having a huge impact."

Commenting on the latest 'low rate' mortgage offers from HSBC (1.99%) and Halifax (2.99%), Hannah Skenfield at moneysupermarket.com says: "With all these low rate offers flying around, borrowers could be forgiven for thinking that lenders really are beginning to loosen the purse strings again. The vast majority of the market is unable to access these deals as nearly all new headline rate launches are restricted to a minimum of 60% LTV - our figures show only 33per cent of potential borrowers have this kind of deposit."

She adds: "Even those that do have the necessary funds would be well advised to get out the calculator." Halifax's deal with its 2.5% arrangement fee works out more expensive than a 3.59per cent rate with a £799 fee.

Last week Halifax reported that house prices rose 0.8per cent in August and Nationwide says last month saw the fourth increase on the bounce.