Is it a buyers or seller’s market right now?

The temporary cut in stamp duty together with pent up demand due to the pandemic led to a record breaking 8.5 million visits to Rightmove on Wednesday (the start day for the stamp duty holiday)

There has been a significant increase in demand from buyers, including buy-to-let investors, over the past few weeks. The number of people phoning and emailing estate agents about property for sale was up 93% on the same day in 2019. Anyone thinking about selling their house right now will find an abundance of prospective buyers, increasing their chances of reaching a good sale price (competition drives prices up).

So now could be a good time to sell with increased buyers pushing competition and prices up. It could also be a good time to buy, as big savings can be made in avoiding stamp duties but equally prices may be temporarily high which could cancel out any potential savings.

This move by the chancellor to cut stamp duties will keep momentum in the market, helping to prevent falls in property prices as the inevitable unemployment grows, but how it can be sustained in the longer term remains to be seen. No one is sure about the future, but I suspect as the stamp duty holiday ends (March 2021) and unemployment rises, we will see a slump in buyer demand as people won’t be able to afford to buy and with this usually follows a fall in prices. However the desire or reasons to sell will still be there so it will become a buyers market.