The Government last week revealed that more than 100,000 people (112,000 to be precise) have bought or reserved a home under schemes such as Right to Buy, Help to Buy or shared ownership.
The initiatives have, without question, given a welcome lift to a housing market which has bumped along for a number of years.
They have brought back vital first-time buyers many of whom have been effectively been shut out of the market since the economic downturn kicked in almost six years ago.
But while they address some of the symptoms, they do not deal with the root cause, according to some industry experts who believe a shortage of housing stock is the real problem.
Move with Us Director Robin King said: "While the Government's intentions are in the right place and things are moving in the right direction, they have been short sighted in stimulating demand but have done little to increase supply.
"Although a £1billion fund has been granted to unlock housing development in the North in places such as Manchester and Leeds, supply also needs to be stimulated in areas where there is high demand for housing such as the South East and the more affordable areas surrounding Greater London.
"If supply can't keep pace with demand, property prices will rise as multiple buyers vie for one property and this really could make home ownership unaffordable for many aspiring home owners in Britain. Building 400,000 new homes in four years is a step in the right direction but we need to build 400,000 every year, as we did in the great depression of the 1930s, to ensure supply keeps pace with demand.
"There should also be an injection of investment in the supply chain businesses expanding production to supply more bricks, blocks and plasterboard otherwise the market will be somewhat restricted.
"Stimulating supply by reinvesting the money from properties sold to Right to Buy owners in new properties to social tenants to live in is a smart move as it will help to tackle the shortage of social housing."
Comments
Yes, government schemes are usually more of a problem than a solution.
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'guest' - Mr Scruton and I share similar thoughts. In another thread a week or so ago a chap and I were 'debating' the housing stock situation between 2001 and 2011. According to ONS, an additional 1.7m 'households' were created in that period. A lot was being made of the fact that only 0.1m of those appeared to be owner-occupiers (in reality that was simply the increase in the stated number of owner-occupiers - there were, after all, over 10 million property sale transactions within those dates - not ALL bar a couple of them were to BTL investors...). I pointed out that in the same period, the POPULATION grew by some 4.4million - equating to 2.6 people per 'new' household (which is slightly higher than the 'average' of 2.41pph). According to the same source, the population 'grew' by 0.4m in the 12-month period up to mid-2012. IF you believe the press, it is expected that the UK population will hit 70 MILLION sometime in 2014 - watch this space...
Roger Scruton, on question time the week before last was one of the few I've heard brave enough to address the real reason for the housing shortage in the UK, the simple fact that this little island has a bigger population than it was ever designed to take.
Oh my word - Longden is off on one again...
Queues for a product does not make that product intrinsically more valuable. Prices rising due to demand is sheer profiteering, the shameful side of capitalism.