Simon Thomas the CEO of Montpellier Legal has reacted to Rachel Reeves’ landmark first Labour budget.
Commenting on the chancellor’s budget statement, Simon Thomas, CEO of Montpellier Legal, said: “Following the Chancellor’s Budget Statement today, after much speculation, most people we have spoken with are frankly “just glad that it is out of the way” as one broker recently said to me.
“In all seriousness, it was a longer gap to wait than usual for a statement, and with that added timeframe, it has left people longer than usual to ‘fear the worst’; certainly the market has shown signs over the past few months of cooling in some parts of it at the upper end.
“However – like with so many big external events (think Brexit!), once people know and understand what the horizon actually looks like, it enables them to plan accordingly and take action.
“As some of the worst fears from those in the property industry haven’t materialised in the Budget, a collective sigh of relief could be heard from many of our contacts in the market. The only notable exception to that are the ‘buy to letters’ who will now be stung with not a 3% but now a 5% second property surcharge – unexpected by most and not likely to help those buying holiday homes, either. We may see some price renegotiations off the back of that.
“Taking a bigger picture view of the announcements, we feel that the mainstream residential market will now pick up activity-wise, and prove surprisingly resilient in the run up to Christmas. We fully expect positivity to return sooner rather than later, now that people know where things stand, and no major negatives have been introduced. Indeed a lower level of new buy to let buyers will assist the first time buyers out there with less competition for properties.
“So until next October`s Budget(!), many will now look to move forwards, re-engaging and picking up where they left off, from the temporary lull over the past few months – to a hopefully brighter future.”
