George Osborne at his pathetic vote-buying best:
1. Help to Buy Shared Ownership: current restrictions on who can buy a home through shared ownership will be removed from April 2016
Currently, these are allocated in several different ways including criteria set by local councils, for example whether potential buyers work in the local area or if they are already in council housing.
Help to Buy Shared Ownership will lift the limits so that anyone who has a household income of less than £80,000 outside London, and £90,000 inside London, can buy a home through shared ownership.
Yes, housing is so very affordable nowadays that households earning £80,000 or £90,000 need subsidies to afford one.
2. London Help to Buy: If you live in London the government will lend you 40% the price of your home from 2016
Help to Buy Equity Loans are already open to both first-time buyers and home movers on new build homes in England with a purchase price up to £600,000... to reflect the current property market in London, from early 2016 the government will increase the upper limit for the equity loan it gives new buyers within Greater London from 20% to 40%.
With London Help to Buy equity loan:
•you’ll need to contribute at least 5% of the property price as a deposit
•the government will give you a loan for up to 40% of the price
•you’ll need a mortgage of up to 55% to cover the rest
The taxpayer backing low interest loans of up to £240,000 to speculate on London land prices? What could possibly go wrong?
3. First-time buyers will be able to get a 20% discount on 200,000 new Starter Homes
Starter Homes are new build homes available at 20% off the market price. They are only open to first-time buyers under 40. You can register to find out about Starter Homes in your area.
£2.3 billion will be spent on building 200,000 Starter Homes over the next five years.
The 20% discount is probably illusory. There will always be far more people wanting to buy them than are available, so the remaining non-discounted homes will be sold for higher prices to those above the income limits and it all averages out.
So basically they are going to bung the land bankers £11,500 per home for a random number of homes.
4. Money raised from tax on people buying their second home will be used to help those struggling to buy their first home
From 1 April 2016 people purchasing additional properties such as buy to let properties and second homes will pay an extra 3% in stamp duty.
That's the only mildly good idea present, although probably unenforceable.
Debate Magazine
