House market measures not enough says accounting firm

News Article - 03 September 2008
Category: Business

The package unveiled by the government to aid the housing market is welcome, but "does not go far enough", according to an accounting firm.

Marios Gregori, the director of corporation tax at PKF Accountants & business advisers, claimed that while the measures will help some first-time buyers get onto the property ladder, they will not get the market moving.

He said that while extending the nil-rate band for stamp duty from £125,000 to £175,000 would help some, it would have had a greater impact had it been extended to £250,000.

"The extension will encourage more shared equity schemes with the percentage share bought by first time buyers having a value of around £170,000, especially as the government's new HomeBuy Direct scheme, worth £300 million, aims to help up to 10,000 first time buyers," he added.

He also felt that while the measures would help the residential sector, the commercial sector had been ignored.

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, also said that stamp duty should be frozen on properties worth less than £250,000.

He said that the move was a "short-term survival plan for the prime minister" rather than a long-term recovery plan for the economy.

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