At the time of writing, in a response to a petition asking for the stamp duty holiday deadline to be extended, the Government appears to have ruled the option out.

So, what does this mean?

Well, it sharpens the value of prioritisation when it comes to pipeline business. This was certainly a choice we made at Foundation back in November.

The Guild of Property Professionals’ asked 1,000 buyers in mid-December what they would do if it looked like their transaction would not complete pre-31^st March. Close to a third (31%) said they would pull out. Zoopla recently said there were currently 418,000 property sales progressing towards completion; extrapolated out that could mean close to 130,000 sales aborted, having a significant impact on resource and obviously income for advisers.

Evolving processes to meet the challenge

Our aim during quarter one is of course to ensure we have all the resources, in the right places, in order to do our very best for every borrower. We now accept ‘no search indemnity insurance’ for both purchase and remortgage transactions (excluding HMOs and Multi Unit Blocks), with the policy available in lieu of local authority and/or other searches.

What none of us can do is guarantee a pre-31^st March completion, but hopefully as we embark upon a new year, we are able to introduce such measures and do everything we can to take as many cases through to their final destination.

It will be a busy first quarter, of that there is no doubt, but I have no doubt it can be a very successful one for the vast majority of clients.

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