Housebuilders sitting on 600,000 plots of land, while taxpayers pour in billions through Help To Buy
The Guardian reveals the extend of plc house builders landbanking in an article published on December 30 2018.
Sadly omits Churchill Retirement and McCarthy and Stone – the latter having a particularly healthy land bank. It argued that – among other things – ground rents paid for land acquisitions.
These hugely taxpayer subsidised companies also like to run off and flog their properties to non-domiciled investors last trade shows in Hong Kong and Singapore.
It is difficult to envisage a more unhealthy residential property market than the one England had adopted (things are better in Scotland, where the market is overwhelmingly mortgage driven from local purchasers).
A report last year by JP Morgan established that what the £12bn spent by the government on the help-to-buy scheme since 2013 has mostly achieved is to allow builders to charge more for new homes.
Help to buy has mostly helped housebuilders boost profits
A Morgan Stanley report shows the government’s subsidy has driven up the price of new-build homes – and now it is lining up another £10bn
The Chartered Institute of Housing says that in 2016-17, the government charged homeowners £10bn in tax, mostly on stamp duty on house sales, and granted £39bn in tax relief.
By contrast, private landlords paid net tax of around £8bn. Landlords effectively pass on that extra cost in higher rents, however.
As the report points out, the benefit system picks up the slack, with around £15bn a year going to social housing tenants and £8.5bn to private renters.
The report makes the point that Help To Buy is now as embedded in the property system as the Bank of England’s low interest rates.
Housing news
Contrary to expectations, an exhaustive analysis of government spending, taxation and regulation of the housing market reaches the conclusion that home-owners are the most subsidised, followed by social housing tenants and then private landlords and renters.
Related posts:
Retirement housebuilders and speculators plead to be allowed ground rents in the Evening Standard
BBC R4 Today programme hears of ‘venal, greedy housebuilders’ playing the angles of leasehold
‘Fleecehold’ petition launched to stop housebuilders creating YET ANOTHER revenue stream from their customers
No new leasehold homes built in 2017/18 – Honestly?
Taxpayers face £85,000 loss as Homes England accepts leaseholder can pay back loan on flat blighted by Grenfell cladding
MHCLG website dumps leaseholders’ responses to consultation, says NLC
The Times 12/01/2019
This was from the Newspaper The Times/Sunday Times, who have in the past paid great service to Leasehold Reform.
Builders sell homes at bulk discount
Taylor Wimpey has agreed a bulk deal, but said this was not something it felt a need to chase
Housebuilders are selling homes to large housing associations at a sizeable discount, according to industry reports. There are also signs that new-builds are being converted into affordable properties with government support.
Housing association bosses have reported a number of recent deals with developers offering unsold plots or pre-sale homes. It emerged this week that Taylor Wimpey had agreed a bulk deal.
Industry sources yesterday talked down speculation the deals signalled the start of a trend and said the new-build market remained strong, underpinned by the government’s Help to Buy scheme.
Set up in the 1960s to provide low-cost homes for workers, housing associations are the leading providers of social housing in Britain. They are non-profit organisations but critics say that some have adopted aggressive commercial…
chas says – Unable to complete just now, can anyone continue this posting? but some Housing Associations have been following the Peverel/Firstport ways of earning more money by fraudulent methods.