House sales tumbled by more than half during the first few weeks after the end of the UK’s stamp duty holiday, leading to the quietest October property market for almost a decade.
After a record surge in activity earlier in the year, transactions slumped by 52% in a month to reach 76,930 in October after thousands of homebuyers rushed to complete their purchases and beat the government’s end-of-September stamp duty holiday deadline.
HM Revenue and Customs, which published the new data, said UK house sales in October were also 28% lower than in the same month last year.
HMRC said that after “significant forestalling activity” by homebuyers in September, there had been “an expected but noticeable decrease” in sales the following month.
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