In recent years, there has been a spate of initiatives to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder, from Help to Buy to Stamp Duty exemptions. And by and large these measures have had the desired effect: demand from first-time buyers seems to be getting stronger all the time. The latest figures from trade body UK Finance show first-time purchases up nearly six per cent year on year.
According to the latest data from HMRC, property transactions witnessed an uptick in September, rising 5% from August and 2.3% from September 2018. Neil Knight responds to the figures...
Commenting on the latest HMRC property transaction figures Neil Knight, Spicerhaart Part Exchange & Assisted Move business development director, said: “The latest figures from HMRC show that residential transactions in August have remained broadly stable year on year, with just a 0.4% drop on a non-seasonally adjusted basis from August 2018. This represents a significant recovery from what was an exceptionally quiet July: overall property transactions increased by nearly one-third (32%) from the previous month.
The latest report from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) shows that there is enough suitable brownfield land in England to build more than 1 million new homes.
The report, released last month, is based on analysis of local council’s brownfield registers. It shows that there are more than 18,000 sites – an increase if 2,600 since February 2018 - and more than 26,000 hectares of brownfield land that could be built on.
David Cooper, one of the UK’s most senior planning lawyers, has called for the Green Belt policy to be scrapped, describing it as ‘the worst thing that ever happened to the economics of this country’.