First time home buyers are looking forward to a year of welcome news in the UK, with a New Year basket of goodies in store.
Here are some of the bonuses they can expect in 2018:
- Mortgage rates will remain at historic lows, despite an anticipated rise in the base rate to 0.75 per cent in the late spring. While inflation is edging up, the affordability of homebuying finance means that buyers can have confidence in making repayments.
- House building is on the increase, with 20 per cent more new homes on the market in 2017 than the previous year. After a long period of tight supply and racing demand, 2018 should see more of a stable balance, as immigration levels flatten and yet more properties are built.
- Higher taxes and more stringent lending criteria for buy-to-let could dampen parts of the market which had over-heated in recent years. First time buyers should profit from this re-balancing as more properties in their bracket become available.
- The abolition of stamp duty for properties under £300,000 and a £10 billion boost for the help-to-buy scheme will further assist first time buyers, despite a minor lift in prices (estimated at 0.3 per cent) emerging in 2018.
- The UK law will change to ban leaseholds on most new build houses in England in 2018, reforming what has been called am ‘unfair and abusive’ system, which has left owners unable to sell their properties after extreme leasehold cost rises.
GRE Assets wishes everyone a happy and prosperous 2018
