Budget plan to help first-time buyers purchase second-hand homes amid pressure to extend schemes beyond new-builds

9 comments

1. You pay your taxes, and you find out that you’ll have councils, housing associations and now other purchasers outbidding you using your own money.

2. > Has any intervention they’ve made actually helped to bring prices down?

   As of today there is no measure that could bring the prices down in the short term, the higher the demand the higher the prices and the government won’t ever get near reducing demand.

3. “People regularly say to me that they would like to get their €30,000 tax back to buy a home where they’re living where there are no new homes yet being built. So there is a demand for it,”

   Of course there’s demand for it. In what universe is there no demand for getting €30k off the price of a house? Just because there is demand for something doesn’t mean it should be done.

   At least only including new builds in the scheme somewhat pushes the construction of new housing. Extending it to 2nd hand homes is just throwing more money at something where demand far exceeds supply. This will help some at the expense of others.

   There is no scheme like this that can be implemented that will help the situation. They simply need to build more houses. Adding to the demand rather than addressing supply is not helpful.

4. Jesus Christ.
   This is going to go the same way as the “help to buy” scheme, where developers/sellers just increased prices.

5. Why?

   Wasn’t the whole point of help to buy on news homes to increase demand for new builds?

   This seems like a fucking terrible idea.

6. I hope its retrospective.

7. I thought the reason for first time buyers support on new houses was to encourage construction through a back door subsidy.

   What are they encouraging by subsidizing the purchase of second hand homes?

   Feels all a bit 2007 when the government wanted to keep house prices on an upward trajectory.

8. Interest rates are starting to slow down the increase in house prices, can’t have that, so let’s increase demand on dwindling supply, buy us some votes along the way.

   Brought to you by, FG/FF

   Unfucking believable

9. Could have done with that when I bought back in 2019, we’ve spent 30k+ easily just renovating the place and upgrading insulation and we still have the windows to replace and possibly solar panels if we end up buying an electric car down the line. But yea all it’s gonna do is inflate the price of second hand homes even more. Bunch of gangsters.