Thursday, August 1, 2013

George Osborne’s ambitious plans to help house buyers

Jonathan Waters expressed delight at George Osborne’s announcement yesterday of the extension of his help to buy scheme.

However, the owner and Managing Director of Jonathan Waters Estate Agents also expressed concern and could relate to those who are worried about the impact and effects of the scheme.

“For those wanting to buy homes in Ipswich, the great news about the extension of the help to buy scheme is that it now applies to both existing homes as well as new build properties.”

“Estate agents in the Ipswich area will definitely treat this as good news, particularly as the scheme, which starts from January 2014, will run for three years.”

“The other good news is that it is no longer restricted to first time buyers and the scheme enables people to purchase properties with a deposit as small as 5%.”

“Basically the government guarantee will encourage lenders to offer better access to low deposit mortgages.  The mortgage guarantee scheme applies only to the purchase of those properties up to £600,000.”

Jonathan Waters, however, urged caution and did express concern about some areas of the new scheme.

“Starting in January 2014 it could certainly increase the prices of houses in Ipswich.  I would definitely expect to see more first time buyers in the Ipswich area jumping onto the housing ladder as a result of this scheme and that in itself can only be very good news.

“I would also expect to see people who are currently in rented accommodation, having previously sold properties and moved out of house ownership, buying houses again in Ipswich once this scheme has taken off.

“Mr Osborne unveiled plans to underwrite £130 billion of mortgage lending for all homes which followed on from a loan scheme launched in April aimed purely at new build homes.  Almost 7,000 reservations of new build homes were made through the scheme in its first four months, and the British Bankers Association said the number of mortgage approvals for  house purchases rose to a 17 month high in June.

“The government has pledged £12 billion worth of guarantees on an estimated 138 billion mortgages.  George Osborne went to great lengths to insist that this would not repeat the mistakes that sparked the financial crisis because the rules would ensure that responsible lending continued.

“Part of the terms and conditions of the new scheme announced by Mr Osborne are that buyers would have to continue to verify their income and would not be able to “self certify”.  Anyone with a County Court Judgement of more than £500 against them in the past three years will also be barred under Financial Conduct Authority standards.

Jonathan continued “I am expecting the continuation and even further increases in the amount of activity within house purchase in the Ipswich area.  I think estate agency in Ipswich generally will have a massive boost as a result of this new mortgage guarantee scheme as well as other positive factors about the housing market in recent times.”

To view the current choice of homes for sale inIpswich, Martlesham, Kesgrave and surrounding villages contact us.

625 Foxhall Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP3 8ND
01473 721133

35 Buttermarket, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 1BH
01473 281188

Bristol Court, Betts Avenue, Martlesham Heath Business Park, Martlesham IP5 3RY
01473 620222


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