I wonder how long you think it takes for a transaction to get to completion?

I have a customer who instructed me on their purchase in Oct 2007-Yes that was before HIPs and the Banking crisis.

The matter proceeded to exchange as normal but since the property was being purchased off plan(not yet built) the completion date was to be on 10 days notice that the construction was finished and the premises fit for occupation.

The Target date for completion when exchange of contracts took place was the Summer of 2008.

Welll here we are now in the Spring of 2010 and matters are still not finalised. I have been told that the projected occupation date is now expected to be Summer 2011.  I understand that the delay was as a result of the Developer ceasing building and they have recentlly recommenced having just received appropriate funding

I have to say that this is the longest time I haver had a file open as a current matter and its still a long way from finalisation. I have been involved in property law for over 30 years

Is it possible that this customer will benefit if the Chancellor changes the situation on Stamp Duty. Possibly but this will depend on the detail and whether it is only a temporary measure designed to win votes or a permanent change. If temporary my customer may not benefit since it is likely to be for properties that complete after a cetain date and before another fixed date similar to the previous relaxation (£125K up to £175k) which ended on the 31/12/2009.

You will have seen from my previous post that I gave the Chancellor a hint as to how to inject life into the Property Market and we will see if he has even considered this option or elected to go for a simplistic approach of only helping  Buyers and setting an arbitrary limit that has no basis in fact.

It will be interesting to see the detail of the Budget rather than the headlines but any temporary relaxation of Stamp Duty will not be good overall for the property market as it will be  revitalised artificially  and push prices up only for the market to fall again at the end of the period similar to what  we saw in January of this year.

Any comments  welcome