Budging the Market Along

Fri 01 Nov 2024

What did the hotly anticipated 2024 budget from Chancellor Rachel Reeves do for those looking to buy or sell a property?
 
Apart from a few initiatives such as the post Second World War new homes building programme, Thatcher’s Right to Buy legislation, the 1988 cessation of mortgage interest relief at source (MIRAS) and the 2022 mini-Budget, governments don’t often seem to impact the UK property market in a direct way.  Significant market fluctuations have usually been the result of referred influence from domestic economic performance and events such as a pandemic and global financial depression, leading to major market upheavals.
 
This latest budget appears to have done little to move the dial in property, and the jury will be out for a few years until we know if the new government will be able to make good on its promise of planning reforms and its new homes building programme.
 
So what has the 2024 budget done for us? Apart from what some might term as several mean and short-sighted measures affecting specific market sectors, the budget has removed much of the uncertainty of the past few months for many would-be movers who have been hanging on to see what might happen. The budget has given buyers and sellers room to plan with some predictability. As budgets go, it could have been much worse for the property market.