Super hero rescue package for new home buyers

photo credit: *PaysImaginaire*

If I could, I would play superhero music to start this blog. If only we had some sort of Spandex outfit and a cape to put Caroline Flint in….maybe not. But she and the government have just announced another rescue package to bolster the housing market.

One of their brand new ideas, which is not at all similar to a scheme some property developers introduced months ago, is to introduce ‘rent now, buy later’ packages (sound familiar).Only this time it’s just for first time buyers on a household income of £60,000 or less, who will be able to move into a house with an 80 per cent reduction on rent and save for a deposit over two or three years.

Get cape, wear cape, build homes

To help seemingly doomed house builders, and to meet the government’s target of three million new homes by 2020, ‘local housing companies’ are to be set up. These will consist of councils and private companies working together to provide new homes on land earmarked as surplus. Pilot schemes will be run in four areas - under Barking and Dagenham council, and Newcastle, Nottingham and Manchester councils. The councils taking part will share a nice pot of money totalling £510 million. There are also plans to build up to 75,000 new homes in 20 towns and cities which have been classed as most in need.

‘Put pressure on mortgage firms’

But not everyone is impressed, both the House Builders Federation and Shelter are quoted in the Guardian as suggesting the pressure should be on mortgage companies to start lending again, while Liberal Democrat spokesman Lembit Opik said of the scheme:

“Another day, another new affordable housing announcement. The government’s hot air will not hide the fact that 10 per cent fewer shared-ownership homes were provided last year than in 2006.”

Will anyone really listen to Mr Cheeky Girl?

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment