I was interested to read comments from one of Taylor Wimpey’s Senior Executives calling for Government to wean the housing market off Help to Buy. The firm’s Group Land and Planning Director, Peter Andrew, said “Help to Buy had led to a measurable improvement in the company’s order book and had led to a UK wide improvement in confidence in housing” however he felt that the housing market would need to be weaned off Help to Buy in a sensible way with lenders picking up the momentum instead.
Whilst I agree with his overall strategy – in that I would like to see lenders taking up the baton of funding the housing market – I think it is too early at this stage for any restriction in the Help to Buy Scheme. As I have previously indicated the property market statistic that I am most interested in for 2014 is the number of properties coming into the market for sale.
On another note it was good to see that Taylor Wimpey have started 2014 with a £1.2billion pound pipeline of new orders which is a very positive way to start the year.
Lindsay Darroch Partner & Head of Property