2nd
Jan 2024
Landlords and Generation Rent have become ‘frenemies’ in criticising the Torys plan to rapidly increase housing demand without ‘encouraging’ supply of newbuilds.
The government released details to newspapers in the past few days of their proposals for a number of schemes to ‘honeytrap’ votes from those who want to take the first step onto the housing ladder.
The Times story reports Housing Secretary Michael Gove saying there will “definitely” be a series of schemes targeting younger first time buyers to boost demand.
The schemes include far longer term fixed rate mortgages backed with a government guarantee against default, similar to current loans in the United States.
The Housing Secretary told The Times: “We have been asking the question, how can we ensure that people with decent incomes who are finding it difficult because of the scale of deposit required to get on the ladder?
“I don’t want to pre-empt anything but it’s about looking at some of the rigidities in the mortgage market that they don’t have in other jurisdictions.”
Other accompanying schemes is an updated version of Help To Buy which could give first time buyers equity loans for as much as 40 per cent of the purchase price of properties, with only having to pay five per cent deposits.
The Times suggests that the government may be considering reducing stamp duty charges for first timers.
YouGov’s poll for The Times finds that as little as 11 per cent of 24 to 49 year olds will vote for the Tories at this year’s election whilst 43 per cent pf 65 plus will.
However both landlords and Generation Rent have slated the proposals.
On his social media account on X, formerly Twitter, a leader of a trade association’s spokesperson says: “Homeownership is obviously great - but given there are one million-plus people on social housing waiting lists, 25 applications for each [private] rental property, a record spend on temporary accommodation, highest rents on record and lowest landlord profits since 2007, shouldn’t renting be the focus?
Generation Rent’s deputy chief executive Dan Wilson Craw also took to social media, tweeting: “Oh, it’s longer term mortgages to the rescue again. I wonder if it’s the same longer term mortgages that have screwed up the US housing market where hardly anyone wants to move because it would mean losing the low interest rate they locked in pre-2022?”
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