You get the top line which raises more questions than it answers and then there’s silence while the industry digests and processes.
However, the Help to Buy package announcement on the other hand was detailed-ish and complex – and for the first time in years an actual surprise – other than the Evening Standard’s embargo-breaking gaffe putting its front page out on Twitter.
The scheme should generate headlines for weeks as well as controversy over the government’s apparent keenness to drive up house prices and subsidise second homes.
This is a heartfelt attempt to offer the equity starved a hand, but sadly, the schemes will fail to reboot the property market for several reasons.
The two combined schemes are too small with the government-backed schemes worth £15.5bn, which is just 7.9% of the 2012 market. Also, it is not top of the government’s priority list to market these schemes on a national basis and despite the solid local work done by property firms to get the message out, public awareness stays low. The complexity of these schemes also means advisers need to be on hand to unbundle and assess every applicant’s suitability for these scheme, where just a few brokers have managed to gain the golden ticket onto a Homebuy agent’s panel or property firm’s panel of accepted advisers.
Yesterday, First Complete’s Toni Smith called for government recognition that mortgage advisers would be key to making these two different schemes work on top of the raft of other similarly-named schemes. That could be a campaign worth fighting for. And unlike the Budget, which was plenty of political posturing rather than economic substance to galvanise a battered and weary economy.
Finding a way to put more mortgage advisers at the helm of the Help to Buy and broaden adviser access to its predecessor schemes could recalibrate these schemes potential.
The scheme’s three-year guaranteed shelf-life could make this impossible. But over the much longer-term, adviser expertise, localised marketing and consumer knowledge could lift these schemes and help them go with the bang needed and not just a whimper.
