Estate agency and mortgage group Countrywide has called on new housing minister Mark Prisk to be a ‘game changer’ in the market.
Chief executive Grenville Turner said: “As the UK’s largest estate agency and property services group, we see first hand how the market is performing, and the message remains that more needs to be done to help individuals buy and rent their own homes and, as a result, help the UK economy.
“We call on the new housing minister to view the health of the housing market as a priority and demonstrate this view through his actions and policy decisions.
“As we have said on many occasions to date, we believe the Government needs to act quickly and progress reforms which address the key issues affecting the housing market – deposit affordability and the shortage of appropriate housing stock at the right price in the right location.
“The Government needs to look at mortgage lending and should set minimum and meaningful mortgage lending targets to ensure more appropriate credit is made available to first-time buyers – a key driver for the rest of the housing market.
“We call for the structure of the UK house-building sector and restrictive planning laws to be reviewed. Also, steps should also be taken to ensure house prices are aligned with people’s wages, which would allow more people to move out of private rented and social housing accommodation to becoming home owners – a key aspiration for many.
“In addition, Stamp Duty for sub-£250,000 properties should be removed in order to boost housing market activity at a time where higher deposits are required to obtain a mortgage, as only 13% of Stamp Duty comes from properties worth less than £250,000.”
Turner added: “As we sell almost one in ten of all residential properties in the UK and are the business that rents the most homes to people, we have a fundamental interest in a healthy and robust housing market, not the boom and bust model.
“As such, we look forward to the chance to present our ideas to Mr Prisk and discussing these proposals and the housing market in more detail.”
.png)
.png)
Comments
@Anon. Sit on what you are talking aout of. S106 agreements cost the vendor of the land and keep your counil tax down. The crap market is stopping developers from putting money into a dead duck scheme. No profit - no build to start with. Clear off with your pointless and ill informed opinions you dimwit this is an estate agent forum but I suppose you may just be one without a brain between your ears!
Biggest problem with mortgage money is that there is just not enough of it around. The banks won't admit this but put in stupid safeguards to enable them to turn down applications wherever possible.
Just as an example of the banks need to get money in: I have 3 telephone line here and for years I have paid with one cheque at the bank. 3 weeks ago I went in as usual only to be told that I have to present 3 cheques as, and I quote 'the machine can't work it out so we have to have 3 cheques'. I was astounded and walked out and sent the cheque by snail mail and guess what - it was cleared!
If our new housing minister can do what it says on the tin then we will all be happy bunnies but I doubt it.
Countrywide are showing some astonishing 'neck' here.
Calling on Government to provide a crutch to a housing market that is on its knees transactionally when it's exactly because of agents like Countrwide and their 'value it high to get the instruction' approach that sales are at such a low point.
70% of new instructions in 2011 went unsold (Rightmove).
However visits and enquiries by buyers across the major portals are at an all time high. There is demand. It's just that agents and sellers are failing to meet it with realistic asking prices.
And mortgage products are demonstrably more available than three years ago and salary multiples and deposit criteria far looser. So it's not the lenders' that are to blame for lack of liquidity.
It's easy to blame everyone else.
Yet the solution to unlocking a housing market in stalemate is rather closer to home than the industry has the intelligence to realise or admit.
[[[[[Considering the complete mess we are in at the moment because banks behaved as if there was no "moral hazard" why on Earth would we ask the government to FORCE them to behave in a way to screw us up even more. ]]]]]
Absurd comment there from AC.
UK banks lost 15 times more on overseas mortgages than they did on UK ones.
It wasn't UK lending standards that brought down the UK banks, nor was it UK mortgage defaults that caused the credit crunch.
The current rationing of lending by UK banks is far more damaging to the UK economy than any perceived excesses of lending in the UK were.
The mess we're in has been created by the UK banks refusal to lend to creditworthy UK consumers and UK businesses since 2007.
Not by their UK lending activities prior to that.....
Surely Tony is wrong.
Capital Gains Tax was introduced in 1965 (blame Harold Wilson), so private residences could not have been subject to it before that date.
They are of course, with limited exceptions, still exempt.
Agree also with POTW that introducing CGT on private residences would be suicidal.
Anon Ok that helps fix supply what are you going to about demand?
If people really want change - then the key is supply and demand.
Abolish the s106 which is not fit for purpose and get people building again. Its not about greed - its about finance.
Onerous 106 requirements prevent development which is no more evident than the swathes of vacant land in E16 and surround.
Anonymous Coward, does the current strategy have the greatest benefit the most people? There are 10 million mortgages in the UK, of which a fraction are problematic, likely under a million. Many millions are paying a heavy price to save these households via depressed pension payouts, savings rates, and an increased cost of living.
To play devil's advocate, what cost is a cost worth everyone else bearing to 'save' these householders? Or, to reverse it, what cost would be too much, in your view?
Tony: 'Let's also restore capital gains tax on principal private residences, as used to be the case before 1965. This will teach citizens that home ownership is not about making a profit from rises in house prices, and remove a huge driver for house price inflation, when banks are willing to lend.'
Too late for that, If you introduced it now you would kill the market stone dead.
People would avoid moving like the plague to avoid paying more money over to the bloody government.
From the article: '... the message remains that more needs to be done to help individuals buy and rent their own homes and, as a result, help the UK economy'
How does someone renting a house help the UK economy? It helps the landlord - obviously - but the individual has less money to spend and the landlord has more ... No comprendo.
If people owning their own homes helps the economy - (is this true? Okay they spend money on their homes but they'd spend the money on something else if they didn't own, or would have more money to spend if they did not have a mortgage - so I wonder if it is true that people buying houses helps the economy) - but, let's assume it helps the economy - surely it would help the economy more if it cost less to buy a home?
So, cut or remove stamp duty.
Cut estate agents' fees.
Make mortgages cheaper - prevent the banks from profiteering as they are at the moment - fix a maximum gap between borrowing and saving interest rates
And, somehow, make houses cheaper
Good news for everyone.
House prices aligned with people's wages is a good thing, nice to see it being said by an industry insider, many of whom are in a state of denial regarding the gulf between prices and wages, and the consequences thereof. But, to simultaneously call for lending targets is inconsistent guff. Volumes will rise when prices correct to suit the new lending landscape.
There's no pain-free way to get around this problem. Record-low rates are simply ensuring a very slow correction, which ought to concern anyone trying to make a living from this depressed market.
Anyone fancy making a living on current volumes for the next decade?
Let's also restore capital gains tax on principal private residences, as used to be the case before 1965. This will teach citizens that home ownership is not about making a profit from rises in house prices, and remove a huge driver for house price inflation, when banks are willing to lend.
The proceeds from the tax would be used to fund the building of new council/social housing direct from the public purse, as used to happen. The Government and councils would buy the land and employ builders direct, with a viable profit margin, again as used to be the case, instead of expecting developers and landowners to pay for everything and crushing the life out of private housebuilding.
Lets be honest, we're all pretty much f'ed. Nothing is going to happen over the next couple of years and 50% of the agents that browse these boards will be browsing ads in the job centre.
Oh and BTW "MINIMUM LENDING TARGETS" ???
Who are they trying to kid.
Customer: "Can I have a mortgage please?"
Bank: " Of course, can you afford it?"
Customer: "No, not really, but house prices are very high"
Bank: "No you can't"
That's not banks behaving badly, that's banks behaving as they should and as we should want them to.
Considering the complete mess we are in at the moment because banks behaved as if there was no "moral hazard" why on Earth would we ask the government to FORCE them to behave in a way to screw us up even more.
That's just MENTAL.
Rant over.
How to be a Housing Market "Game Changer"
1. Increase the BoE base rate to something more useful.
2. Legally enforce max LTV of 80%.
3. Legally enforce max earnings multiple of 3.5.
4. Legally enforce a maximum of 6 months forbearance.
It'll be painful and nasty, but the end result would be the "healthy & robust" housing market the are after.
And put thousands of families out on the street.
As far as I can tell, the current policy the government are following has the greatest benefit for the most people.
It's not perfect, but it's the best we are likely to get.
Leave it alone, don't change the game.