The Devil is in the Detail. Budget Comment Property Summary

The Chancellor’s last budget before the election has indicated that the Finance Bill will affect few areas of the property market.

The property headline grabber is that First Time Buyers will be relieved of paying stamp duty at levels up to £250,000.

This appears to only benefit First Time buyers.  How does the Chancellor define a First Time Buyer ?

To read more, click here.

TORIES SET TO RESTORE HOLIDAY LETTING HOME TAX BREAK

David Cameron, Conservative party leader, and George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, have pledged to reverse a £20m tax raid on holiday homes proposed by the Treasury if they win the forthcoming election.  The plans, which were announced in last year’s Budget by the Treasury, are set to bring in approximately £20m in taxes in the next year and are due to take effect next month.  To read more click here.

Buying / Selling help from the OFT

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have carried out a survey on the home buying and selling process in the UK. It looked at competition between estate agents and other bodies, the rules and regulations designed to protect consumers, and the relationships of estate agents with other professionals such as solicitors and mortgage brokers.  For the rest of this article click here.

Mortgage lending slumped to a 10 year low as the stamp duty holiday ended

Mortgage lending slumped to a 10 year low as the stamp duty holiday ended

Figures released last week show that mortgage lending slumped to a 10 year low during January following the end of Labour’s stamp duty “holiday”.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) www.cml.org.uk  total mortgage advances were down 32% to £9.1 billion during January, the lowest level since February 2000.   To see the rest of this article click here