SDLT holiday extended

In his Budget on 3 March 2021 the Chancellor announced that the SDLT holiday would be further extended beyond the original end date of 31 March 2021.

In his Budget on 3 March 2021 the Chancellor announced that the SDLT holiday would be further extended beyond the original end date of 31 March 2021. The government's rationale for this is to maintain confidence in the housing market following the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the housing market was largely put on hold between 26 March 2020 and 13 May 2020, and after that period there continued to be reduced activity in the UK housing market when compared with the period before lockdown. In response to this, on 8 July 2020 the Chancellor announced a temporary increase to the amount a purchaser could pay for residential property before SDLT was due, from £125,000 to £500,000, for the period 8 July 2020 to 31 March 2021. This has now been extended to apply to transactions in England and Northern Ireland with an effective date (usually the date of completion) between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2021. This measure does not apply to Scotland or Wales who operate their own land transaction taxes.

This measure introduces a staged withdrawal of the temporary increase to the amount that a purchaser can pay for residential property before they pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), by:

  • extending to 30 June 2021 the nil rate band of £500,000, which was due to end on 31 March 2021
  • introducing a nil rate band of £250,000 for the period 1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021

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