Response to Budget proposals to address the housing market

Following today’s Budget Proposals  – including £44bn in government support for housing and the abolishing of stamp duty for first time buyers up to £300,000,  please see thoughts from Ben Thompson, CEO of ULS Technology (AIM:ULS), which provides online B2B platforms for the UK conveyancing and financial intermediary markets.

  • Proposals welcome as it is essential to have a more liquid housing market
  • It is great to see increased scope for the next generation of buyers to be able to get onto the housing ladder
  • The home buying and moving experience is changing rapidly due to innovative technologies and the internet
  • The combination of complex processes, charges and costs associated with buying and selling houses are unjustifiably expensive
  • We are seeing a new breed of service providers competing with traditional market operators in order to eliminate bottlenecks and reduce costs

Ben comments: “ULS welcomes the much needed boost to housing announced by the Chancellor of The Exchequer in this year’s Autumn Statement. 

“The clear take aways from today’s budget proposals are the need for increased affordable housing – especially for first time buyers with a view to ensuring inter-generational fairness. To enable this, it is essential to have a more liquid housing market and scope for the next generation of buyers to be able to get onto the housing ladder. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that the need to build more houses (and faster) and a stamp duty rethink are grabbing the headlines.

“With the volume of housing transactions markedly below their longer term averages, many aspiring homeowners are simply priced out of becoming First Time Buyers.

“We are pleased with the adjustment in Stamp Duty for First Time Buyers, as this will reduce the financial hurdle to becoming a homeowner. We would have liked to have seen more wholesale adjustments to Stamp Duty in a bid to make life easier for subsequent movers as well, in particular last time movers.

“The home buying and moving experience is changing rapidly and the Government’s focus on ensuring fairness can only be a good thing. The combination of complex processes, charges and costs has made buying and selling houses increasingly prohibitive and we are delighted to see steps put in place to help alleviate the issue. In addition to the Government’s initiatives we are seeing a new breed of service providers competing with traditional market operators as this space continues to evolve and we look forward to seeing the results of the positive steps taken.

“Some of today’s measures will positively impact the market in the near term, whilst others will slowly help to reverse what has been a trend of gradually reducing housing transactions. 

“Being a technology business with an interest and in the health and liquidity of the housing market, we firmly welcome any shift in that trend that we have clearly seen today.”

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