This is a budget which made no mention of the housing market. The bold statement made a month ago that Britain’s housing market is broken, has today been side-stepped.
Doug Crawford is chief executive of My Home Move
“This is a budget which made no mention of the housing market. The bold statement made a month ago that Britain’s housing market is broken, has today been side-stepped.
“Last year the Chancellor’s predecessor made sweeping changes to the tax system for those looking to purchase additional homes, a move the government hoped would slow the buy-to-let market in favour of first-time buyers.
“And while buy-to-let activity has now halved, and first-time buyer activity has begun to increase, what hasn’t been addressed is that buy-to-let landlords aren’t big corporations, but individuals making a living, to help support their own families.
“And come the 6 April, landlords will suffer a further blow as changes to mortgage interest relief come into force; coupled with increases in National Insurance for the self-employed announced today – an estimated one in five landlords will be affected.
“The fear being that any additional costs will end up being passed on to their tenants; meaning rents will go up, while their ability to save for a deposit for their first home, will go down.
“What we need is a property market that works for every kind of buyer including the government’s ‘ordinary working families’.
“By putting the brakes on the buy-to-let sector all the government has done is caused a problem further along the housing chain. In the future, we urge the government to look at the issues as a whole, in order to fix its broken housing market.”
