Autumn Budget Announcement 2024
In light of the recent Autumn Budget announcement, we have reviewed our industry-leading data to offer insights and perspectives on the factors likely to have the greatest impact on the mortgage market. Read our commentary below:
“It’s hard listening to the Autumn Statement, and recent announcements on housing, but without a single reference to the mortgage market. Now, in part, that’s a sign that the mortgage market is incredibly responsive and adapts to change quicker than many other sectors. But there are wrinkles in the market that only the Government can help to address and today, they failed to do so.
“There was an opportunity to do something clever for both those who want to downsize and First Time Buyers. But there was nothing hidden in the Treasury documents, apart from a consultation on Help to Buy without any real specifics.
“As a result, the market remains heavily reliant on Buy To Let landlords to get the lower rungs of the property ladder working; however we are already seeing a decline here. But those landlords just got hit with an increase from 3% to 5% in SDLT, effective tomorrow. That is going to materially affect how the market works. That’s compounded by CGT rates rising too. CGT remains the same for property investments, but CGT rises on other investments will almost certainly impact on the funds available for investment by landlords and potential landlords going forwards.
“Come Friday, we’ll begin to see how this has affected the market when lenders have adjusted their products and landlords recalibrated their appetite.
“Twenty7tec data has pointed to proportionately fewer buy-to-let searches over the past two years and this unwelcome change in SDLT will only exacerbate that trend, I fear. In September 2022, buy to let was 29.2% of residential mortgage searches, whereas in September 2024, it was down to only 23.3%.
“As you can imagine, we’re going to keep a close eye on mortgage search volumes over the coming days as the market reacts to the Government’s announcements.”
