The Return of the First-time Buyer?

Things don’t seem to get any easier for the first-time buyer, and not just in Northumberland.

Research by KPMG and Shelter predicts the average price of a house in England could double in ten years and exceed £900,000 by 2034. It is suggested this would happen unless a quarter of a million new homes a year are constructed under a radical house-building programme. It is further envisaged that over half of 20 to 34 year-olds could be living with their parents by 2040 as they get locked out of the property market. The report, entitled,Building The Homes We Need, calls for an emergency budget to address housing and  a new bill introduced within 100 days, regardless of which party is successful at the next election in 2015. Recommendations include giving planning authorities the power to create “new homes zones” where there would be no development tax. It is also suggested that landowners should be able to invest their assets in exchange for shares in any future increases in value.

At Nicholson Portnell, we are conscious of how difficult things are for the first-time buyer. We’ve all been in that position ourselves. We also recognise that the entire housing market needs first-time buyers to make the system work – for the benefit of everyone. For some time, therefore, we’ve run a low cost conveyancing package for those involved in their first house purchase. New entrants to the market have been few and far between in recent years, but now, at last, there does seem to be  a steady flow of first-time buyers in Hexham and around..