Burnham’s activism for the Fairer Share campaign, state intervention and stamp duty changes, among others, calls into question anticipated changes to the bond market.
Nicholas Mendes, mortgage technical manager and head of marketing at John Charcol, said: “So far, yields have nudged up and the pound is a little weaker since Makerfield, but that’s a wobble, not a rout. He didn’t help himself last autumn with the line about Britain being too in hock to the bond markets, and he has spent the months since trying to walk it back, sticking to the current fiscal rules and ruling out the headline tax rises.”
Improvements to housing supply
It is anticipated that housebuilding would see an uplift in the event of a Burnham premiership.
Noord Romjon, director at the New Homes Mortgage Broker, said: “The focus on housebuilding would be a significant boost for our industry. The government’s target of 1.5 million new homes appears to have lost momentum amid wider distractions, including global instability and ongoing political challenges.
Aldermore Insights with Jon Cooper: Edition 9 – Why lending strategy is becoming more central in buy to let
Sponsored by Aldermore
“Andy Burnham has consistently prioritised unlocking brownfield sites and publicly owned land for development, which would be a positive step towards increasing housing supply.”
Maeve Ward, intermediary sales director at Together, commented: “Andy Burnham brings a strong track record as Mayor of Greater Manchester in terms of housing delivery, regeneration and regional investment during a time when Manchester has become the fastest growing city in the UK.
“Factors such as housing supply are going to be high on the agenda of any leader, as well as a focus on affordability to help people get a foothold on the housing ladder.”
Changes to stamp duty
In response to Andy Burham’s support of campaign group Fairer Share, Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said: “The simplicity of the proposal is commendable and scrapping stamp duty make sense given how it hinders social and economic mobility, but the proposal in question feels too overtly political. Shouldn’t the sole aim be to maximise tax revenue?”
Mendes also said: “He has floated replacing stamp duty and council tax with an annual proportional property tax, which would change how people think in higher-value areas in particular, a recurring yearly bill instead of a one-off cost when you buy.
“Scrapping stamp duty cuts the other way, though, and could get more people moving and shorten chains. His rent control and council housebuilding plans are really a landlord and buy-to-let issue rather than an owner-occupier one.”
Bill also commented: “A similar approach with stamp duty since 2014 has curbed activity in exactly the sort of high-value locations where most revenue is presumably being targeted. A regular flow of tax receipts has obvious benefits for the Chancellor, but politicising the housing market feels like an approach that’s been tried and failed.
“At a time when many landlords are struggling to make things stack up financially, any further disincentive is likely to result in less stock and higher rents. And the notion that developers would rather ‘landbank’ than build houses for a profit is a misguided assumption.”
