What the residential property market needs now, is less Imodium and more a blast of stewed prunes

Anyone who doesn’t reside under a stone and can barely colour in newspaper pictures, must have heard mutterings about the imminent Budget regarding resurrecting the Mansion Tax corpse. As if this wasn’t alarming enough, it may be topped up with a possible raid on what’s left of private pensions.

I was a little confused about the former Chancellor Sajid Javid’s mindset. We were all confident that he would ‘break the economic mould’, rather than end up being covered in it. For instance, where is the clarity on the 3% surcharge which could be slapped on international buyers of UK residential property? Does this mean that at the higher end SDLT could be an eye watering 18%?

The new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, needs to make this clear in his first Budget, which I hope will still be in early March. Continue reading

George Osborne’s Autumn Statement 2015 – A Wish List

When our esteemed Chancellor, George Osborne, stands up at the Ballot Box for his Autumn Statement in the Commons this year this is what we would, ideally, like him to address.

The housing market, particularly in London, is grinding to a halt burdened by the huge weight of the SDLT charges that were imposed in last year’s Autumn Statement. Continue reading