Autumn Budget 2024: Comments from the property industry
The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves gave her first Autumn Budget, and here we have collected comments from experts in the property industry.
Simon Brown, Landmark Information Group CEO, said:
“Our data clearly shows the significant affordability constraints currently weighing down the housing market.
“With interest rates still relatively high and unstable, home-movers are unable or hesitant to take the leap, resulting in completion levels falling to an all-time low.
“What the market urgently now needs is support to help transactions progress at pace, rather than adding further pressure on movers through increased costs.
“A healthy home-moving market benefits not just buyers but the wider economy too, as movers spend money on home decoration and renovations—often in the local community.
“Yet, the home-moving process remains painfully slow, with the average transaction taking 123 days to complete.
“Addressing these inefficiencies is crucial—improving digitalisation, data-sharing, and speeding up the process would help alleviate current market pressures without adding extra financial burdens on home buyers.
“The decision from Government to not extend existing stamp duty exemptions for primary residences will inevitably create a rush of transactions as movers scramble to complete before the proposed stamp duty deadline on 31st March 2025 – something conveyancers, in particular, are already preparing for.
“However, with average completion times already so slow, many buyers may not make the deadline, creating a ‘cliff edge’ effect.
“After this surge, transactions risk stalling dramatically, leaving the market in an even more fragile state.
“We urge the Government to consider the long-term impact of this measure and focus on working with industry to improve the efficiency of the home-moving process – mitigating the market dampening effects.”
Rob Houghton, CEO of reallymoving, the comparison site for home movers, commented:
“Landlords are already leaving the sector in droves, and a further increase in the Stamp Duty surcharge will be yet another deterrent for anyone thinking of investing in property.
“People rent for a multitude of reasons and a strong and affordable private rental sector is absolutely crucial to the health of our housing market.
“It worries me that these rental homes will not be replaced, creating more competition among tenants and pushing rents even higher.
“For homebuyers, it’s very disappointing to see no reference to the upcoming increase in Stamp Duty from next April.
“Our research shows the proportion of First-Time Buyers paying Stamp Duty will more than double, from 17% currently to 39%, when the temporary higher thresholds are reversed.
“The last thing First-Time Buyers and upsizers need coming down the road is yet another significant upfront cost, when they’re already grappling with extortionate house prices and higher mortgage rates.
“Reverting back to the old Stamp Duty thresholds seems completely non-sensical at a time when it’s harder than ever to get on the housing ladder.”
Jerry Mulle, UK Managing Director of SaaS core banking provider, Ohpen, commented:
“Today’s Autumn Budget has been anxiously awaited by homeowners and prospective buyers since Labour took office.
“Unfortunately, it neglected to include details about the permanent mortgage guarantee scheme, promised in Labour’s manifesto, meaning uncertainty around the mortgage and housing market remains.
“Missing an opportunity to alleviate pressure for home buyers, especially for first time applicants, will add further stress to those who are already facing a challenging mortgage application process.
“In fact, our latest research into the current state of mortgage applications reveals that 38% of homeowning 24–35-year-olds wished they rented for longer instead of going through the mortgage application process due to how stressful it is.
“The Government has a huge role to play in alleviating stress on homebuyers, by providing clarity to schemes and delivering on manifesto promises, however, with a fifth of consumers aged 18-54 asking for better online tools to relieve stress during the mortgage application process, mortgage lenders must face the reality of the inefficiency delivered by archaic legacy systems.
“The industry doesn’t need to wait for the Government to work together to make the mortgage application process more transparent and inclusive from the outset.
“With a joined-up approach, the industry can speed up the application process by taking complex legacy technology out of the equation and enable better real-time data sharing between all the stakeholders involved in the home-buying journey.”
John Phillips, CEO of Spicerhaart and Just Mortgages, said:
“Today’s Budget was an opportunity for Labour to show that its plans for housing are far more than just increasing supply.
“Sadly, this wasn’t the case, with a real lack of support for buyers and the wider housing market.
“While increasing supply is necessary, we also need tangible support right now to increase routes to homeownership and reduce affordability pressures, particular for first-time buyers.
“While not mentioned, it seems the Stamp Duty relief will still end in April, removing important financial support for buyers and downsizers, while creating another cliff-edge deadline for the industry to deal with.
“We will have to see if the almost instant increase in stamp duty on second homes does indeed increase transactions as the Chancellor hopes, or whether as some worry, it will impact rental supply further and send rents higher – adding further pressure to those trying to save for deposits.
“With the Budget now done, we have to hope that some of the waiting and seeing will now clear and we see buyers moving forward with plans.
“Plus, with the consensus being that we will still see another cut to the base rate this year, we will hopefully see some activity from both lenders and potential buyers.
“It’s a shame though that it is left to the industry once again to do the heavy lifting to support buyers and keep the housing market moving.”
Joe Pepper, UK Chief Executive Office at PEXA, commented:
“Committing to the building of 1.5 million homes with a £3.1bn investment is fantastic for first time buyers and a sizable investment in affordable homes is welcome as a longer-term fix of the short supply of housing stock.
“Doing so will naturally create economic growth and stimulate other industries in a wider sense.
“But there is a huge gaping problem that has not been addressed – how are we going to actually deliver this benefit, if the back end infrastructure supporting the housing market, both for remortgaging and sale and purchase, is simply not fit for purpose?
“The government said it would ‘put the right policies in place’ to make this a reality, but it has missed one key detail: the urgent need for government commitment to support private investment in the modernisation of technology to make any of this a reality, and to actually benefit both mortgage market professionals and consumers.”
