JONATHAN ROLANDE – the housing market finally gets gutsy!

For years, successive governments have danced around the housing crisis, terrified of upsetting anyone keen to protect green space, our newts or just the local house prices.

Finally, there’s a shift—subtle but detectable. Ministers are beginning to speak plainly about the desperate need to build homes rather than simply recycling press releases and fuelling the demand with gimmicks. For those of us purchasing properties and working with sellers daily, this is a big shift.

We need to acknowledge that there is no path forward without controversy.

Every housing policy treads on someone’s toes.

As the saying goes, ‘for every action there is a reaction’. Environmental campaigners resist any development beyond brownfield sites. Local residents oppose new schemes before the planning application ink is dry. And developers? They’re seen as villains even when attempting to deliver what the market is desperate for.

The stark reality we face is that Britain hasn’t built enough homes for decades whilst the population has exploded. The consequences are painful. Rents are climbing to and beyond any sense of reasonableness, millions of young people are permanently locked out, top-end sales are stagnating, and people are moving less often. It’s good for nobody.

So yes, cautious credit to the government for finally absorbing political heat in exchange for action. Perhaps in view of recent blunders, they feel there’s little to lose.

Signs of meaningful planning reform, strategic land release, and a genuine housebuilding programme are long overdue. But speeches don’t house families. Success will be measured in bricks.

But will this boldness survive the inevitable backlash in local papers and Facebook Groups? Difficult to predict. Infrastructure planning, genuine affordability, and community engagement remain significant hurdles. But if this represents even the beginning of a proper housing strategy rather than an empty promise to add to the long list, then it’s a stat.

So for now, let’s call this a promising memorandum of sale. The deal is STC but not yet exchanged, and is sadly far, far from completion

This is surely the one deal we cannot allow to fall through.

Kindly shared by Estate Agent Today Image courtesy of Adobe