Stamp duty issues stop one in 10 borrowers moving 

Have you considered buying a new property but decided against it? If so, you are not alone. New research from a leading mutual lender has revealed that more than one in ten homeowners have given up on the idea of moving home in the last three years due to financial issues.

The high cost of Stamp Duty is one of the factors, as is the difficulty in securing mortgage finance.

A new survey from the Nottingham Building Society has revealed that more than one in ten homeowners have tried to move property in the last three years but decided against it after problems with mortgages or Stamp Duty.

11% of the 1,073 respondents quizzed by the leading building society said that they had given up on the idea of moving home due to 'financial issues'. This equates to around 1.2million people electing not to move home, according to the Nottingham study.

8% of people questioned said that they had been put off by the high cost of Stamp Duty, while just under one in 30 people had seen their mortgage application rejected.

The survey found that the top reason for people deciding not to move home was the lack of suitable properties for sale. Around a quarter of all homeowners said that they had wanted to move but had been unable to find the right property to buy.

Just under a third of property owners (30%) said that they couldn't afford to move home at the present time and so are concentrating on improving their current property. A fifth said that they could not find a better home to move to.

Ian Gibbons, senior mortgage broking manager at Nottingham Mortgage Services, part of The Nottingham, says: “The mortgage market is generally performing well with growth in remortgaging and for loans to first-time buyers with strong competition from lenders. There are a wide range of deals and advice available for all types of borrowers but the home moving market is still not expanding which points to wider issues than simply mortgages or Stamp Duty as the blocks in the market.

“Home movers clearly are also struggling to find suitable homes to move to which turns the spotlight on improving their existing homes rather than moving. The key to remortgaging successfully is to search the market for the most appropriate deal and to get advice on options particularly for older borrowers who may need to extend their loan into retirement.”