Selling my current flat in the new year which is ideal for a FTB so the stamp duty announcement is good news for me as it should encourage some more buyers into the market.
Very bland an a non-budget to me. No changes to any real taxes (income tax rates, IHT, pension etc) and the ones he did (personal allowance & higher rate thresholds) were in line with inflation & as per previous announcements. Headlines will be for Stamp duty abolished for FTB but for the man in the street no real change.
Unless I missed something (or he turned 2 pages over at once ala Mugabe) there was no changes to pensions (tax relief, Lifetime & Annual allowance) which was one of the expected ways he was going to raise money.
Very bland an a non-budget to me. No changes to any real taxes (income tax rates, IHT, pension etc) and the ones he did (personal allowance & higher rate thresholds) were in line with inflation & as per previous announcements. Headlines will be for Stamp duty abolished for FTB but for the man in the street no real change.
Unless I missed something (or he turned 2 pages over at once ala Mugabe) there was no changes to pensions (tax relief, Lifetime & Annual allowance) which was one of the expected ways he was going to raise money.
I assume both were the classic tactics of "putting rumours about really unpopular changes out" so that when they don't happen everyone is happy with the lack of content in the budget!
Abolishing SD for first time buyers will do nothing to help. It's a headline grabber for the unanalytical. The only thing that will address the housing shortage is more houses. This move will just push up prices. I regard the help for first time buyer scheme with similar disdain after my brother in law made a bundle on his marital home, got divorced and sold it, then reentered the housing market as a first time buyer with a huge deposit and a shoe box full of cash from undeclared earnings from the previous several years. And then got a govt subsidy in his new 4 bedroom detached house in Devon. I wouldn't mind so much, but he's an arsehole to boot.
But with hundreds of thousands of EU migrants supposedly moving back home or elsewhere, won't that free up some existing accommodation? I don't know what the impact of that would be on the housing/rental markets but you'd assume, surely, that it would reduce demand considerably and partially relieve the pressure on the cheaper end of the housing market.
Yup, the stamp duty thing is more of an attempt to give life support to a market that’s in danger of bursting whilst looking like you’re helping the young. Once the housing market goes it’ll send us into another pretty deep recession.
Good news for those aged 25 - 30, an extension of the young persons railcard will help with student loans and high rents whilst being good for the environment.
That's Labour's support from this demographic about to collapse.
Comments
Concerned about the growth predictions though.
Unless I missed something (or he turned 2 pages over at once ala Mugabe) there was no changes to pensions (tax relief, Lifetime & Annual allowance) which was one of the expected ways he was going to raise money.
The only thing that will address the housing shortage is more houses. This move will just push up prices.
I regard the help for first time buyer scheme with similar disdain after my brother in law made a bundle on his marital home, got divorced and sold it, then reentered the housing market as a first time buyer with a huge deposit and a shoe box full of cash from undeclared earnings from the previous several years. And then got a govt subsidy in his new 4 bedroom detached house in Devon. I wouldn't mind so much, but he's an arsehole to boot.
But with hundreds of thousands of EU migrants supposedly moving back home or elsewhere, won't that free up some existing accommodation? I don't know what the impact of that would be on the housing/rental markets but you'd assume, surely, that it would reduce demand considerably and partially relieve the pressure on the cheaper end of the housing market.
(see what I did there?)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42056452
It was widely rumoured that the repayment period for posts 2012 system of graduate tax, sorry student loans was to be extended from 30 years to 50.
I know this was internally costed by DFE. Im bloody glad they didn't do it.
That's Labour's support from this demographic about to collapse.