"Our current Government’s pledge to build more homes is an admirable one, but it’s a promise that we’ve seen time and time again and one that has never been fulfilled by hitting housing delivery targets"
- Colby Short - GetAgent
The latest property market insight from GetAgent.co.uk, has shown that the nation’s estate agents are largely disappointed with the current Government with respect to its approach to managing and stimulating the property market, with fewer than one in five believing its ambitions to build more homes is enough to address the current issue of housing affordability.
The survey of estate agents, commissioned by GetAgent, asked how they would best describe the current Government with respect to the property market initiatives implemented since its first major fiscal statement back in October of last year.
Just 7% described the current Government’s attempts to manage the property market as positive, with the majority (40%) believing it had so far been disappointing, whilst 23% answered that it had been underwhelming.
During the Autumn Statement last October, it was announced that there would be no extension to stamp duty relief thresholds and, despite the increased cost this move would bring to homeowners, no extension was granted in the recent Spring Statement, nor was any other cost saving measured introduced to help homebuyers tackle the high cost of climbing the ladder.
72% of those surveyed by GetAgent believe that, by failing to throw a bone of any sort, the current Government has ignored homebuyers and the tough task they face in today’s market.
The current Government has been quick to state it would build more homes in order to help ease the housing crisis, committing to building 1.5m new homes by 2030.
But just 17% of those surveyed by GetAgent believe that this will be enough to address the current issue of affordability and, furthermore, 66% feel that more short-term measures are required to help homebuyers, such as the re-introduction of the Help to Buy scheme.
“Our current Government’s pledge to build more homes is an admirable one, but it’s a promise that we’ve seen time and time again and one that has never been fulfilled by hitting housing delivery targets," comments GetAgent's co-founder and CEO, Colby Short. "So it’s understandable that the property industry is not only skeptical about the Government’s ambitions to build 1.5m new homes by 2030, but would also like to see more done in the short-term to stimulate the market and tackle the issue of affordability for the nation’s buyers.
He concludes, "This is hardly surprising given that over the last two fiscal statements, we’ve seen no aid afforded to the nation’s homebuyers and, in fact, the slight relief that was in place in the form of a stamp duty saving has been removed.”
