What does the future hold for new building developers? Sue Taylor of RPC Land & New Homes peeps into her crystal ball.

RPC Land & New Homes is welcoming the government’s initiative to encourage further home ownership. The last Budget brought with it a new wave of positivity in respect of the housing market, opening up the viability of home ownership to potentially hundreds of thousands more people through new government-backed schemes.
The harsh economic climate seen in the double dip recession brought lending to a new low, with many banks unwilling to relent on their high lending criteria, demanding sky high deposits from potential purchasers. However, this year has seen the first real buds of change, with lending increasing, mortgage rates becoming competitive again and average house prices increasing month on month.
Indeed, Halifax reported a 0.2% national rise in house prices in March alone, when compared with the previous month and up 3.6% across Kent in the last year.
One of the moves for change has been the announcement of the government’s Help to Buy scheme which extends the previous FirstBuy scheme to everyone.
This means that homeowners now need to acquire just a 5% deposit, instead of the 10% or greater that many banks are demanding for their mortgages. Whereas the previous scheme FirstBuy was only open to first-time buyers, this one will be available to all buyers of newly-built homes up to the value of £600,000.
Pundits have speculated that this could open up the housing market to an additional 600,000 buyers, creating a desperate need for new homes and reinvigorating the building industry as a whole.
This is a great idea to get the market moving and at RPC Land and New Homes we have certainly been seeing an increase in inquiries from first time buyers who are now able to take that all important first step. This should in turn create a chain reaction for creating sales of homes for those further up the ladder too.
We look forward with enthusiasm to a continued thawing of the housing market and an upturn in interest in new build homes as the year commences.
For more information on RPC’s sales of land and new homes see www.rpclandandnewhomes.co.uk