10 May 2022
If you are covering the Queen’s Speech and the announcements on housing, please see the following comment from Karen Noye, mortgage expert at Quilter:
"First-time buyers have been playing a perverse game of cat and mouse over the last two years where they save for a deposit and then find that it no longer enables them to buy their dream house due to skyrocketing house prices. This in turn forces many more to rent and during a cost-of-living crisis and with inflation soaring it doesn’t look like anything is going to change quickly. The government has set out some levelling up plans to address the housing and rental market but none of them truly tackle the root cause of the problem which is that there is simply not enough housing stock in the UK. This ultimately pushes prices up as people scramble for property and the only cure is a radical house building plan that enables people to buy good quality homes at a fair price that stand the test of time.
"The government has also set out their renter’s reform bill abolish section 21 orders, which abolish landlords being able to throw out their tenants with eight-weeks’ notice without explaining why. Similarly, it has committed to improving the condition of rented housing stock. All good news, but ultimately, we need to help more people get their first foot on the property ladder so they can build up equity and enjoy some of the wealth creation opportunities that generations before have enjoyed from housing. Fixing the rental market is needed and understandable but is a sticking plaster that fails to address a much larger problem.
"One of the welcome announcements will be the changes to the leasehold rules in the UK, which can cause people significant issues. There are a range of problems that people face when it comes to leasehold properties including difficulty in securing the freehold or extending their leasehold, problems with ground rent payments and having to pay large legal costs. The government has rightly announced it will tackle this and ultimately remains committed to banning new leaseholds on new properties."
