A leading housebuilder has introduced a nationwide price freeze to ensure buyers benefit from the Chancellor’s stamp duty cut.
Bloor Homes has announced it will be freezing prices on all homes at its 60 developments across the country until February 2018.
The move has been made to protect buyers from house price increases which are predicted to result from the announcement.
Chancellor Philip Hammond abolished the levy for first-time buyers on homes worth up to £300,000, a move which will save the average first-time buyer £1,660.
He also cut stamp duty for first-time buyers purchasing a home worth between £300,000 and £500,000 in London and other expensive areas.
However, the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted that the move would simply push up prices and negate the saving.
Although the stamp duty cut applies just to first-time buyers, the Bloor Homes price freeze will be available to all customers.
Bloor Homes has also pledged to pass on the saving to any buyers yet to exchange who were to have their stamp duty paid by the developer.
Vanessa Macnee, Regional Sales Director of Bloor Homes South Midlands, said: “The Chancellor’s decision to cut stamp duty for first-time buyers was a welcome move to help people achieve their dream of climbing onto the property ladder, and it is vital that the intended benefit from this change is not cancelled out by a sudden rise in house prices.
“Any increase in prices will affect not only first-time buyers, but the market as a whole, including purchasers who will not benefit from the stamp duty reforms. We have therefore taken the step of announcing an immediate price freeze on all plots across all our developments for all buyers.
“We hope this measure will provide confidence and certainty to our buyers that they will feel a tangible benefit from the stamp duty changes, despite some headlines to the contrary.
“As a housebuilder, we sometimes pay stamp duty on selected plots and a number of our buyers who have yet to exchange were due to benefit from this offer. As stamp duty will no longer be payable on some of these properties, we have decided to pass any saving resulting from the stamp duty reforms to our customers.
“Although we are under no obligation to pass on this saving, we feel it is in keeping with the spirit of the Chancellor’s announcement that buyers, particularly those purchasing a home for the first time, are the ones to benefit.”
