Conveyancing update as we move into 2022...

449 days of reduced stamp duty rates are over and now some relief for our customers and conveyancers.

For customers, conveyancers and everyone involved in a property transaction the Stamp Duty holiday gave the UK property market the boost that it needed both during and after the pandemic.

From 8th July 2020 to 30th September 2021 the incentive had the desired effect. It stimulated the market. The ONS reports that UK House Price growth is up 10.6% year on year*. All good news.
  
But what can we now make of the 449 days that we had some form of Stamp Duty incentive from the government? It was unquestionably congested up and down customers property chains. Everyone involved feeling challenged with the additional workload, lack of capacity, communicating, working with agents, lenders and valuers to get customers to completion. 
  
Buyers were quite rightly eager to take advantage of the discounted Stamp Duty and sellers wanting to secure the sale and move. If you were a conveyancer the sheer amount of files meant that keeping up with all of your customers' needs proved very difficult and as a customer, there were potential delays at every turn; your mortgage, searches, valuation, chasing your enquiries and management packs. The list was endless and added even more pressure to the usual setbacks you can experience when buying and selling. But relief now comes in a different form; the last of the Stamp Duty holidays is now over. Stamp Duty rates have returned to what they were before the change and the industry will now return to a more sensible level of transactions. 
  
This is good news for conveyancers and customers who are currently buying and selling, or thinking of doing so. Service levels will get better and you will have a more positive experience. So what can you expect moving forward? Well, a significant amount of people in the industry will likely take a break to recover as we go again in the last quarter of 2021. Delays and backlogs will clear now, as thousands of transactions and all of the associated work has been completed and customers have moved home. At Countrywide Conveyancing Services we have seen our volume of active cases ease off by nearly 16% as we helped the last burst of customers through the Stamp Duty deadline**. During even the most frenzied time of the Stamp Duty holiday, we continued to measure and reward our legal teams directly based on what our customers told us. And we will still do so moving forward. 
  
So when you're thinking of who to choose to represent you when buying or selling your home, consider this review from one of our customers who lived through their property lifecycle during the Stamp Duty holiday. "If I could give 1 million out of ten then that is what I would give. He has been so professional. Nothing was ever a problem and even when I felt I was pestering him he was so kind and so helpful. He made you feel as if it was personal to him to help you and you were the only case he was dealing with. He is a credit to your company."

Countrywide Conveyancing Services have been acting for customers to buy and sell their homes for more than 20 years. We have over 120 dedicated specialist property lawyers who are really passionate about helping our customers. Conveyancing is all we do and we are really proud to say that we are trusted by more than 60,000 customers per year. Check the very latest live customer reviews to see what our customers are saying about us. 

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