BUDGET COMMENT: The Chancellor's Budget has done little to restore buyers’ and sellers’ confidence
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In reaction to the Government’s Autumn Budget, please see below comment from Lucy McCallum Head of Residential Conveyancing and Board Director at WSP Solicitors, a firm which has been offering straightforward legal advice and support for over 265 years.
Lucy has over a decade of experience in residential property and specialises in a wide range of residential property services including, sales and purchases, new build properties, shared ownership and Help to Buy, re-mortgages and equity release mortgages, transfers of equity and probate sales.
The Chancellor's Budget has done little to restore buyers’ and sellers’ confidence.
The Budget missed an opportunity to address some of the barriers preventing people from moving home.
"The property market thrives when buyers and sellers have confidence and certainty around costs. Unfortunately, the Chancellor's Budget has done little to provide that certainty.
"The market has already slowed significantly over the past year, driven by higher mortgage rates and continued pressure on household finances. Affordability remains a major challenge for many buyers, and the Budget missed an opportunity to address some of the barriers preventing people from moving home.
"While the Your First Home scheme along with the First Time Buyer ISA, replacing the Lifetime ISA, is a welcome step towards helping first-time buyers onto the property ladder, it is disappointing that the Government's focus remains largely on new-build homes and solely new homeowners. Not every first-time buyer wants or can afford a new-build property, and reform is also needed to support existing homeowners looking to move up, downsize or relocate.
"It is particularly disappointing that no changes were made to Stamp Duty. The tax continues to be a significant barrier to moving home and can discourage activity across the housing market. If the Government is serious about stimulating growth and increasing mobility, reducing the financial burden of moving would have been a logical place to start.
"It is encouraging that proposals to lower the mansion tax threshold did not materialise. Reducing the threshold would have brought many more homeowners into scope, particularly in areas where high property values do not necessarily reflect an individual's ability to afford to pay additional taxes. Increasing the tax burden in this way risks making home ownership more expense without addressing the underlying challenges facing the market.
"The biggest improvements would come from measures designed to reduce property transaction times and cut the number of failed sales, something the Chancellor failed to address today. Greater investment in modernising the conveyancing process, faster access to property information and increased transparency around leasehold transactions would make a real difference. Delays in obtaining information from management companies can add weeks to the process and create unnecessary frustration for buyers and sellers.
"Frequent changes in Prime Ministers and successive Budgets in recent years have often led people to delay moving decisions while they wait to see what policy changes may be around the corner. Following this Budget, hopefully we will see confidence return, particularly among first-time buyers, but broader reform is still needed to support activity across the wider housing market."
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