Sarah Davidson
Published November 24, 2025 9:30am
Updated November 24, 2025 9:35am
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On Wednesday November 26, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Autumn Budget, outlining the government’s tax and spending plans for next year.
According to the rumour mill, changes to stamp duty may on the agenda – but we’ll only know for sure until that famous red briefcase appears.
Still, this week’s Money Problem reader, 36-year old James from London, thinks putting off a much-awaited first property purchase until then might pay off.
Is it too much of a gamble? Here, he asks Metro consumer champion, Sarah Davidson, for her thoughts.
The problem…
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My girlfriend and I are buying our first flat and have been going through a really lengthy purchase process.
We had our offer accepted in May but we still have no completion date set – there was a lot of back and forth about repairing some damp and who would pay for it and then there have been a lot of (what I’m told are usual) delays.
We’ve now finally sent our signed contract to our solicitor and they’re just waiting for us to transfer the deposit. However, I’ve heard rumours about the Autumn Budget removing or altering stamp duty so it’s paid by sellers rather than buyers.
Is it worth us delaying completion a little longer to see what happens in the Budget on Wednesday?
The answer…
If there is one thing I can say with absolute certainty about the Budget, it’s that there is absolutely no certainty about what may or may not happen.
We know the UK is currently in a cavernous debt hole. We know that it’s currently costing taxpayers more than £100billion a year just to pay the interest on the money the country owes.
We know that inflation has been running high for years. This has not just pushed up living costs for households, it’s piled tens of billions of pounds of extra cost onto the social welfare and state pension payouts made by the Treasury.
We all know too, that public services across the country are crumbling.
In short – she’s got to raise a lot of money. A lot. And that means higher taxes.
This year’s Budget will be announced November 26 (Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP)
As is always the case ahead of Budget statements, the media is heaving with rumours of this and rumours of that tax going up, going down, going, going gone.
Some of the time this rumour mill is down to government aides leaking potential policy changes to see how the public reacts. Then they can rein plans back in if there’s too great a political backlash.
Sometimes there is a genuine leak and the press get it bang on ahead of the big day.
Mostly, the ‘will she, won’t she’ dominating the headlines over the past few months comes down to lobbyists.
Businesses, builders, retailers, financial services firms, catering companies, farmers, energy companies, tax accountants, estate agents – everyone has an agenda. Those agendas are often played out in the media, framed with phrases such as ‘under pressure to’ or ‘warned against’.
When you look at the detail, it becomes clear that it’s all if this, then that. Nowhere does it say this is the policy she will announce.
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Before you start thinking about delaying completion on your flat, it’s important you – and anyone else currently in the process of buying or selling a home – answer a few basic questions in the here and now:
- Do you like the flat you want to buy?
- Do you think you’re paying the right price for it?
- Can you afford to buy and maintain it?
- Do you want to live there for a few years at least?
If you’re answering yes to these questions, then just get on with it.
There may be huge temptation in hanging on for another couple of days just in case you could save a couple of thousand pounds.
But even if a Budget change to stamp duty saves you money, there will be other consequences too.
If you’re saving that money and the seller suddenly has to find it for the transaction to go through – what do you think the outcome will be? They ask you for that saving to be lopped off the agreed price? They say they can no longer afford to sell given the extra cost they hadn’t factored in?
If a transaction collapses, everyone’s losing at least £2,000 in wasted legal, survey and mortgage valuation fees. And you don’t have your flat. And you have to find another £2,000 to go through the same arduous process on the next flat. And in the meantime, house prices might have gone up another £10,000.
So what have you actually saved?
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Buying a home is not the same thing as investing in property. You’re in it for the long term because you want, presumably, to enjoy living there with your partner.
It’s up to you whether you wait another couple of days before completing.
If it were up to me however, I’d go with what I know to be facts now and cut out the potential for a shower of the proverbial to muck up your plans.
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It’s highly likely that you’ll save more in the long run by not taking the gamble.
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