With the general election 2015 tomorrow the high-end property market has all but frozen, temporarily paralysed by uncertainty and the vagaries of potential policies such as Labour’s mansion tax.
Summary of the intentions from each party on general aspects of property:
Conservatives
- Plan for councils to determine annual house building targets
- Affordable home target value to be £275k by 2020
- 200,00 new homes at 20% discount
- Help-to-buy equity loan to be available until 2020
- Aim to continue with current policies with further support to roll out neighbourhood planning
- Garden cities where locally supported
- Complete delivery of 10,000 new homes in the private rental sector below market rent
- No rental cap to be imposed
- Support voluntary model tenancy agreements
- No development land tax
- No mansion tax
- No new council tax bands
- Continue current policies to reduce empty homes
Labour
- Plan for 200,000 new builds annually
- Double number of first time buyer by 2025
- Speed up planning for < 10 unit schemes
- Local Authority to use land as equity rather than selling
- Yes to garden cities and garden suburbs
- No letting agents fees for tenants
- Introduction of national register for landlords
- Market rent followed by ceiling on rent increased for 3 year tenancies
- Default 3 years for tenancies
- Yes to Mansion tax
- Double council tax charges for properties empty more than a year.
Liberal Democrats
- Plan for 300,000 new builds annually
- More shared ownership, rent-to-buy
- Commissioning of new housing direct from government
- Local Authorities to identify 15 years’ housing planning supply
- Pilot for local authorities determine uplift with regards to land development tax
- Yes to garden cities
- Yes to Mansion tax
UKIP
- 200,00 new homes at 20% discount
- 1 million new homes on brownfield by 2025
- Review help to buy scheme
- Cut costs of planning applications by merging planning and building control departments
- Yes to green cities but not on green belt
- Encourage more landlords to rent to tenants on housing benefit
- No rent cap
- New 3-10yr tenancies (as well as normal ASTs)
- No to development tax
- No to mansion tax
- No new council tax bands
- Double council tax charges for properties empty more than 5 years
- Council tax waiver for landlords bringing properties back into use.
Green Party
- Plan for councils to determine annual house building targets
- 500,00 new social rented affordable homes by 2020
- End help-to-buy scheme
- Constrain power of national planning expectorate
- Councils to have a more proactive role in planning
- Compulsory licensing for all landlords
- No letting agent fees for tenants
- Cap rent rises to inflation initially
- Living Rent Commission to examine more stringent rent cap proposals
- 5 year tenancies with tenants right to renew unless the landlords sells or moves in
- Yes to Development tax
- Support mansion tax, but would prefer Land Value Tax
- Yes to new council tax bands
- More robust council powers for empty homes (e.g. punitive council tax levels)
What are your thoughts on the parties’ policies?