Many commentators zoned in on the Chancellor’s political purpose. Genworth business development director Patrick Bamford said the government saw a strong housing market as a vote-winner: “As we get closer to the General Election in May 2015, the dynamics of the big ‘set pieces’ of the Budget and the Queen’s Speech will become more and more interesting.”
Others believed the politics could jeopardise housing market gains. Marsh & Parsons chief executive Peter Rollings said the plan to introduce Capital Gains Tax for overseas investors “smacked of political point-scoring”. He complained: “This policy will create further uncertainty by adding to the ever-increasing tax burden that overseas buyers experience in London.”
The London Central Portfolio agreed the move was an easy hit: “It will have popular appeal amongst the electorate who seem to have been revved up by our politicians to be both anti-wealth and anti-foreigner.”
However, a surge in sales could present a buying opportunity, it conceded.
Fittingly for an Autumn Statement crammed with market statistics, others chose to focus on the government’s record on the housing market. Crown Mortgage Management chief executive Andrew Doyle said the recent “stop, start, stop, start” tactics from the government was confusing: “You can’t just stimulate the market and then drop it. Long-term incentives on the supply side are what is needed in order to encourage more house building.”
Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association executive director Peter Williams said both the government and Bank of England had the mortgage market firmly in their sights: “The Bank itself must now take care to ensure further interventions are based on good evidence and do not stifle a recovery that is yet to be realised in full.”
For HomeOwners Alliance chief executive Paula Higgins, the most important things was what was not said. “We’re still completely nonplussed as to why there isn’t a flat rate on stamp duty for investors,” she said. “It would be a way of reducing charges that cripple first-time buyers and prevent people from owning their own homes.”
And e.surv chartered surveyors director Richard Sexton said by failing to reduce Stamp Duty, the Chancellor was missing a trick: “Cutting the duty could have helped alleviate the monumental task of saving for a deposit, and encouraged more movement within the market.”
Some, however, remained optimistic. LSL Property Services commercial director David Brown said: “Hopefully the absence of new support for the rental market today means the Treasury has fresh ideas in mind to support landlords in next year’s Budget.” Perhaps.
