Starter Homes
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Latest property news
Minister gives £1.2bn starter homes scheme green light
A scheme outlined a year ago while David Cameron was still in power that enables first time buyers to purchase discounted starter homes has been given the green light by housing minister Gavin Barwell (pictured). He told Sky News yesterday that up to 500 brownfield sites within 30 local authorities will create up to 30,000 new homes during the current parliament, funded via a £1.2 billion Starter Homes Land Fund. The sites will include several town centres and, the government says, will support wider regeneration and growth of local areas. Barwell says construction will “start quickly” and that planning permission for the sites will be streamlined, simplified and therefore much less expensive than for normal developments, enabling the properties to be sold ‘at least’ 20% below market value. The homes will only be available to first time buyers between 23 and 40 years old and the scheme only applies to properties selling for a maximum of £250,000 outside London and £450,000 within the capital. Each of the 30 local authorities (see list below) has been selected because, the government believes, they can implement the new scheme the fastest. Authorities must now identify potential brownfield sites working in partnership with the…
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Latest property news
Average London couple unable to buy Starter Home until 2028
Says JLL in latest residential research findings.
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Housing Market
New homes: Government is “pulling out all the stops”
On the first day back at work after the festive break, Prime Minister David Cameron announced another new scheme to get Britain building. Smaller developers will be able to buy sites in England with planning permission in place – with 40 per cent of the new-builds to be “starter homes” aimed at first-time buyers. Direct commissioning has not been used on this scale since Margaret Thatcher started the regeneration of Docklands, the benefit is that it allows the government to assume responsibility for developing land, instead of large building firms. Prime Minister David Cameron said it was a “huge shift in government policy. Nothing like this has been done on this scale in three decades, government rolling its sleeves up and getting homes built.” The Labour party said he was using “rhetoric to hide his failure on new homes.” Shadow Housing Minister John Healey said the announcement did not promise new investment or affordable homes beyond those already announced. ‘Radical’ shift Adding to Mr Cameron’s energy rush, Communities Secretary Greg Clark (left) said that the government was not only rolling up its sleeves but was “pulling out all the stops to get the country building.” “We know that consistently 90%…
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Housing Market
Cameron pledges 200,000 starter homes
David Cameron has doubled his 100,000 homes pledge, vowing to deliver 200,000 properties for first-time buyers in England by 2020 under the Starter Homes initiative if the Conservatives win the election. First-time buyers under the age of 40 in England can already register to buy new homes at a discount of up to 20 per cent off the normal price, under the plans for 100,000 properties already announced by the Coalition Government. But the Prime Minister wants to double the volume of homes available if elected to enable more people to gain a first foot on the housing ladder. The 20 per cent discount will be paid for by waiving the fees developers are required to pay to local authorities under so-called Section 106 agreements, amounting to at least £45,000 per new home on brownfield sites. In a speech in Colchester on Monday, Mr Cameron accepted that there is a housing affordability crisis and that more needs to be done to help young people buy property. He said, “The young people in their 20s and 30s still living with their parents, desperately saving for their own place. The couple who want a child but can’t afford to upsize – even…
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