Sponsored by
Housing association welcomes budget move
A HOUSING association that provides affordable homes in thriving communities for people in the South East has welcomed today's (Wednesday April 22) budget.
"The Chancellor's announcement today of further financial help to stimulate the housing market and new homes construction is another important boost in a market that remains very tough," according to Steve Nunn, Moat's executive director: development and new business.
He continued "First time buyers are still finding the combination of poor mortgage availability and house price affordability difficult to overcome, and HomeBuy Direct is one of a number of government-backed schemes that are helping to make home ownership affordable to people on modest incomes. Even before today's announcement, Moat was expecting to handle almost 700 HomeBuy Direct sales in Essex, Kent and Sussex during 2009/10, and this could now increase.
"It's clear the demand for affordable home ownership remains enormous. We are seeing record levels of interest in our schemes at the moment – Moat had more than 6,000 enquiries and 2,000 applications from prospective buyers in March alone – and we're achieving exceptional sales in a difficult market.
"The big stumbling block remains mortgage finance. Until banks and building societies loosen the purse strings to a reasonable degree the housing market won't get back to decent transaction levels and house prices will stay subdued.
"Shared equity and shared ownership schemes like HomeBuy are one of the only ways for the average first time buyer to step onto the housing ladder right now, because they offer lower prices and lower risk mortgages – a combination attractive to both buyers and lenders. But without a decent deposit, access to home loans even for these schemes remains a problem and there are not enough lenders offering mortgages in the intermediate market," Steve Nunn said.
"The introduction today of the credit guarantee on mortgage backed securities will help increase lending, but it will need to be extended well beyond the initial October 2009 review date if it is to have a meaningful impact.
"The extension in the Stamp Duty holiday for an extra three months is again useful, but would be more beneficial if it were to run for a further financial year.
"Overall, the Government is making very significant efforts to get the housing market moving again in the midst of a terrible financial climate. This gives us some hope that the housing downturn might prove a little shorter than we saw in the first half of the 1990s."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Horsham
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Thunderstorm
Temperature: 14 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Thunderstorm
Temperature: 14 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
