Starter homes pose a threat to the housing market say Savills
Property agent Savills have determined that the Government’s Starter Homes programme could distort the new homes sales market without adding any significant rise in the number of homes constructed.
After conducting a research report on ‘The impact of new housing measures on development’, Savills says the biggest impact will be constrained to sites offering homes using the Help to Buy equity loan scheme, which will be competing for the same slice of the home buyers’ market.
The report also shows how the majority of the 200,000 Starter Homes promised by the Government over this parliament are expected to be built as a form of Affordable Housing, made possible due to changes made to the Housing Bill, thus alternative forms of affordable housing will inevitably lose out to the new option.
The report warns that “Simply replacing homes which would have been delivered anyway through existing routes, namely in the open market via Help to Buy or as Affordable Housing through section 106 agreements, will not provide additional homes. In fact, by narrowing the focus of housebuilding to first time buyers, we risk creating the reverse effect and reducing the number of new homes built.”
So much has yet to be decided on Starter Homes. Savills predict that developers are unlikely to start constructing any before 2017.
Related News
Controversial Housing Bill passed after parliamentary ping pong
Government plans to make 1 in every 5 homes a Starter Home