12th
Nov 2024
It has only taken less than a week following the Budget, landlords and second homeowners are selling their properties in anticipation of higher taxes and council tax premiums.
Zoopla reports that a third of the homes listed for sale on its website are currently chain-free.
Chain-free homes, which are not dependant on other property sale typically sell faster, with buyer enquiries 33% higher than those for non-chain-free properties.
From April 2025, councils will be allowed to charge up to a 100% premium extra surcharge on council tax for second homes.
The Budget also announced an increase in the stamp duty hike for landlords, which will rise from 3% to 5%.
A senior property researcher at Zoopla, Izabella Lubowiecka, says there are many factors that can make a home chain-free.
Lubowiecka said: “Individuals may be selling an inherited home, households might be moving in together, going from two homes to one, or investors and second owners could be selling additional property.
“Those looking at buying a home before stamp duty rates increase in April 2025 should think about buying a chain-free home as they tend to complete much faster. Now is a great time to look for properties, with more chain-free homes available than in previous months. Widening a search to include new homes might also offer a wider range of choice.”
Zoopla's data indicates that 41% of two-bed homes listed on its site are chain-free.
The property website says: “Two-bed properties are often popular with older buyers looking to downsize, as well as landlords and investors, meaning they are more likely to be chain-free when they come onto the market compared to other types of homes.”
Data from Zoopla shows that North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the South West have the largest proportion of chain-free homes at 36%. This is partly due to popular second-home ‘must have’ areas such as Carlisle on the border of the Lake District and the Bournemouth Coast.
Hull is notable for having 46.2% of homes for sale listed as chain-free which are predominantly two-bed properties.
In the South, suburban London and more affordable commuter belt towns like Uxbridge, which has 44.7%, also feature a higher-than-average number of chain-free homes, mainly three-bed properties.
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