May 14, 2008
How many homes can the government buy for £200m?
Caroline Flint has just announced a new £200m fund to buy unsold properties from desperate homebuilders and then rent them to social tenants.
By my calculations, that money could buy…..less than 1,000 average British homes.
In a country of more than 50m people, this is the equivalent of a finger in the dyke.
The government’s other measure to prop up the housing market is no more impressive.
It is - as I predicted in this morning’s FT - opening up shared equity schemes to more first time buyers. I hope, for their sake, the youngsters ignore this temptation - at least until prices have fallen by 10 per cent or more.*
* The government’s own prediction, as spotted on Ms Flint’s cabinet briefing notes yesterday.
houses has already dropped 10% !!!!!
Posted by: luca | May 15th, 2008 at 10:46 am | Report this comment