Hello Ashford Property Investors,

It’s coming. The end of the stamp duty holiday, and as we are in the final month I’ve been looking into some statistics as to how much was saved. Interestingly, I have calculated that Ashford homeowners are on target to have saved a staggering £6m in stamp duty (or an average of £3,7562 per transaction) since the scheme was introduced.

That’s a lot of money and for investors, the savings are also significant. We’ve seen a huge drop in available stock since July, however interestingly prices have continued to soar with this being driven by the level of demand compared to available properties.

One example of this is how phase 1 of a sustainable 93 apartment Ashford development (the first 43 properties) has sold out in just four weeks!

But, £6m… from one district… that’s a lot of money! How did I reach this figure?

Ok, so there are a few assumptions, but I believe it is fairly accurate as according to the land registry, there were a total of 1,872 sales between July 2020 and May 2021 and I have averaged this out for the last few months.

Using the average monthly house price and breaking this down monthly gives you this rather large total.

Whilst there has certainly been a significant amount of money saved, what we have seen is a significant rise in house prices and it looks like the savings were wiped out with higher prices. Indeed, economists are saying that the stamp duty holiday was a big mistake. We will see what happens in the coming months & years!

What’s next for the Ashford property market then? What happens after the end of this month? Well, one thing’s for sure. It looks like the new higher prices are pretty much here to stay.

Whilst the economy is still weaker than before the pandemic, it is certainly in a relatively strong position and I feel that we will see a further drop in available stock for the remainder of the year, however, anticipate that things will begin to return to some sense of normality in early 2022.

I think that the next big thing for property investors to have in their sights is keeping abreast of new legislation (including the regulation of property agents [and landlords] along with the huge EPC shake-up).

Property has always proved robust over the long term, and I see no reason why it will not continue in this way over the coming years and decades.

I am very upbeat about the Ashford property market and if you would like to discuss any questions regarding investing within Ashford then feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn.

Hasan