2011 Budget helps FTBs, homeowners and landlords
Wednesday, 23 March 2011 3:04 PM
The housing measures outlined by chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne in today's 2011 Budget speech included three attempts to improve conditions for owners, renters and landlords across the UK.
For first-time buyers, the FirstBuy programme aims to help cover the cost of buying a home, with more than 10,000 families expected to benefit from the £250 million scheme.
Similar to previous government shared equity schemes, the initiative allows first-time buyers who cannot easily meet the cost of a home to pay for the portion they can afford, with funding from FirstBuy covering the rest until they move or can buy back the rest of the equity.
Elsewhere, the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme has been extended, meaning people who already own a property with a mortgage can receive assistance if they find it difficult to meet their repayments.
Help under the scheme is limited to paying the interest charges on a mortgage – but not the original amount borrowed in the loan – and is currently calculated based on a standard rate of 3.63 per cent.
Finally, efforts to improve the availability of good-quality, privately rented properties included a reform of the process for calculating stamp duty payments.
Rather than using the existing method, stamp duty on bulk purchases of multiple homes will now be based on the average cost, potentially allowing professional landlords to invest in a greater number of properties to rent out to tenants.
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