Chancellor
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Housing Market
Significant increase in new housing consents
There has been a sharp rise in the number of housing permissions by local authorities in the last year, according to new data published by the Home Builders’ Federation (HBF) and Glenigan. The latest HBF/Glenigan Housing Pipeline report reveals that permissions in principle for over 195,000 new homes in England were granted in 2014, up 12 per cent on the previous year and 39 per cent on 2012. The volume of permissions for private homes was up 23 per cent. Over the past 18 months, house building activity has increased significantly, with figures released last month showing the number of new homes started in 2014 was up 36 per cent on 2012. As demand for new homes continues to increase, due to improved consumer confidence and the Help to Buy equity loan scheme, existing housing sites are getting built out quicker, and so builders are looking to get on to more new sites more quickly than before, the report said. “Over the past 18 months, demand for new homes, largely driven by the Help to Buy equity loan scheme has increased markedly,” said Stewart Baseley (left), Executive Chairman of the HBF. “Housebuilders have responded by significantly increasing house building activity.”…
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Latest property news
Stamp Duty Reform
Every buyer, seller and estate agent in the land would have liked to see Stamp Duty abolished but we all knew that wouldn’t happen. However, George Osborne, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, dealt a masterstroke to the Opposition party with his dramatic – and immediate – Stamp Duty reform. Thousands of pounds saved in Stamp Duty payments – for 98 per cent of all homebuyers – will give potential buyers a real impetus to move. It’s another way of clobbering the rich to butter up Middle England voters.” This was a carefully constructed bomb among a whole salvo of missiles aimed at the Labour Party’s election campaign. It will certainly catch the votes of most estate agents when it comes to the crunch next May. Vote-catching aside, this was a brave – and clever – way of reforming tax which removes the need for a Mansion Tax, while the wealthy (those able to afford more than £937,000 for a home) can console themselves that it is a one-off payment on purchase, rather than an additional annual tax. Changes in a nutshell Old regime: Stamp Duty applies to all properties over £125,000. It was calculated in bands and even if the…
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