The stamp duty holiday is helping many people to buy homes, but it might not be assisting first-time buyers.
At Frank Schippers, we work closely with many buyers and vendors. We appreciate the current measures are more supportive for people looking to upsize their home, or who are looking to buy property in a more expensive area.
However, the Government has spoken about assisting first-time buyers in the near future
The Government aims to turn renters into buyers
It is not as if this is the first time a Conservative Prime Minister has looked to turn “generation rent into generation buy”, but it is the most recent. Boris Johnson announced plans for a new scheme to help people arrange long-term fixed rate mortgages for up to 95% of their home’s value.
Zoopla have classed the key points from the Prime Minister’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference as:
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The Prime Minister has promised to increase the availability of mortgages for buyers with small deposits
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The government believes it will enable an additional two million people to buy a property
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Johnson said it would represent the biggest expansion of homeownership since the 1980s
Mark Hayward, Chief Executive of NAEA Propertymark, comments: “We welcome the Prime Minister’s comments today which shows a positive change in tone by promoting a generation of renters to become a generation of buyers. We encourage lenders to come on board and support this initiative to enable first time buyers to enter the property market by future proofing the financial burden many face. We want to see intent become action quickly so that first time buyers can make the most of the current stamp duty holiday and continue to stimulate the housing market.”
What support do buyers need?
Craig McKinlay, New Business Director at Kensington Mortgages, comments: “The ‘Generation Buy’ scheme will be, in effect, a replacement for Help to Buy. Only a few lenders are dipping in and out of the high LTV market at present with ‘flash sales’ due to sheer demand – so this should reassure some lenders to enter more permanently and support first-time buyers.”
Craig also said; “However, for others, the scheme could lead to further capacity issues for those being selective with their offering to manage demand. On the whole though, like the introduction of Help to Buy in 2013 helped boost confidence and ease lenders back into the small deposit market, we hope this scheme will do the same.”
James Forrester, Managing Director of Barrows and Forrester, comments: “Today’s (6th October) announcement will no doubt excite a nation of aspirational homebuyers who have already been sent into a frenzy over the prospect of paying no stamp duty. However, for Boris Johnson to claim this will help fix our broken housing market is not only laughable but quite frankly an insult to those who find themselves priced out of homeownership. The cause of the dire situation we find ourselves in is the Government’s sustained failure to build enough affordable housing year in, year out.”
James also said; “The inadequate supply of housing to meet demand is one of the driving factors that has caused house prices to spiral and to continue to mask this failure by further fuelling demand is irresponsible. Instead, their time would be better spent reallocating wrongly classified green belt land so it can be utilised for housing and preventing the big housebuilders from drip-feeding housing supply in order to keep their profits up.”
If you have any housing market questions or queries, please feel free to contact us. If you plan on selling your home, we recommend arranging a property valuation to ensure you make an informed decision. At Frank Schippers, we are here to support you in this trying time, and you can call us on 01344 777 888.
