Autumn 2017 Budget

[petek]

No stamp duty for first time buyers on homes up to £300K is a jolly good idea.

 

[mjr]

No stamp duty for first time buyers on homes up to £300K is a jolly good idea.

It sounds like a good idea but it's really not, unless you own a home and mean that it's a good idea that benefits you?

The main effect is simply to push up house prices (estimated to be 0.3% average this time) and, in the words of the Office for Budget Responsibility on that link "the main gainers from the policy are people who already own property, not the [First-Time Buyers] themselves". So I gain from this, but my younger relatives won't. What would be a good idea is more cycling-friendly housing created/converted near enough to jobs, shops and mass transport, rather than keep fiddling the tax rules to benefit developers and existing property owners to keep the current failing practices stumbling onwards.

 

[User482]

No stamp duty for first time buyers on homes up to £300K is a jolly good idea.

Agreed: as a homeowner, it will benefit me personally. That it won't benefit first time buyers is irrelevant to this discussion.

 

[petek]

It sounds like a good idea but it's really not, unless you own a home and mean that it's a good idea that benefits you?

The main effect is simply to push up house prices (estimated to be 0.3% average this time) and, in the words of the Office for Budget Responsibility on that link "the main gainers from the policy are people who already own property, not the [First-Time Buyers] themselves". So I gain from this, but my younger relatives won't. What would be a good idea is more cycling-friendly housing created/converted near enough to jobs, shops and mass transport, rather than keep fiddling the tax rules to benefit developers and existing property owners to keep the current failing practices stumbling onwards.

I sorta see your point but surely if it makes it easier and cheaper for first time buyers to buy a house then where's the harm?
More buyers = happier sellers.
Round here £300K buys a big family home so older people downsize FROM £300K homes.

 

[User482]

You'll be voting ruddy Tory next.

As you know, Smeglington, I'm only interested in the personal.

 

[DCLane]

Tax allowance up by £349, every little helps.

And the 40% allowance up £1350 for those that pay it ...

 

[BoldonLad]

It sounds like a good idea but it's really not, unless you own a home and mean that it's a good idea that benefits you?

The main effect is simply to push up house prices (estimated to be 0.3% average this time) and, in the words of the Office for Budget Responsibility on that link "the main gainers from the policy are people who already own property, not the [First-Time Buyers] themselves". So I gain from this, but my younger relatives won't. What would be a good idea is more cycling-friendly housing created/converted near enough to jobs, shops and mass transport, rather than keep fiddling the tax rules to benefit developers and existing property owners to keep the current failing practices stumbling onwards.

Based on Supply and demand, the only way to reduce the price of housing is to increase the supply, or, decrease the demand. This is true if we are talking about buying or renting. Housing Benefit (or whatever it is called now) is really a subsidy to Landlords. Fiddling with Stamp Duty and the various "help to buy" type schemes, effectively are subsidies to the sellers of houses (ie developers or present owners). The only real solution is to increase supply (which, in fairness Hammond did make reference too).

 

[Hitchington]

Another budget which protects the privileged and no extra money for social care to reverse years of cuts. The effect on me? Pissed off with this sh***y government.

 

[Markymark]

It's an excellent budget. My tax will be slightly down. Obviously all the other stuff to do with welfare, the elderly, the NHS, the homeless is neither here nor there to me*

* In the context of this thread's scope obviously.

 

[BoldonLad]

And the 40% allowance up £1350 for those that pay it ...

Yes, 5 of my 6 offspring will gain, and, three of them (Teacher, Civil Engineer and Oilworker) will gain even more.

 

[mjr]

I sorta see your point but surely if it makes it easier and cheaper for first time buyers to buy a house then where's the harm?

0.3% average price increase is the harm, which wipes out half the saving, so it's not making it much easier or cheaper for first time buyers. It's a tax cut that primarily benefits people like me, which seems wrong.

More buyers = happier sellers.

So? To buy a house, you already need to have saved and/or financed enough to be confident of paying the purchase price and all the various hard-to-estimate fees, so I suspect £1000 reduction probably isn't going to make many buy who wouldn't otherwise.

Round here £300K buys a big family home so older people downsize FROM £300K homes.

Then they'll be benfitting from this tax cut, unlike first-time buyers.

 

[Profpointy]

No stamp duty for first time buyers on homes up to £300K is a jolly good idea.

Yebbut it won't actually save the buyers money - prices will pretty much instantly rise to compensate. Prices are fixed by the rules of supply and demand. They'll only become realistically more affordable if the supply is increased - by building more, or less obviously, by taxing the gains in house prices so the become once again somewhere to live, rather than mostly an investment.

 

[screenman]

The price of windscreen repair and paintless dent repair has gone up again today.

 

[petek]

0.3% average price increase is the harm, which wipes out half the saving, so it's not making it much easier or cheaper for first time buyers. It's a tax cut that primarily benefits people like me, which seems wrong.


So? To buy a house, you already need to have saved and/or financed enough to be confident of paying the purchase price and all the various hard-to-estimate fees, so I suspect £1000 reduction probably isn't going to make many buy who wouldn't otherwise.


Then they'll be benfitting from this tax cut, unlike first-time buyers.

How is that a bad thing?

 

[mjr]

How is that a bad thing?

Most of the old farts will probably waste it on cars instead of investing it in better bikes.