No it had come back. Yes its partly due to interest rates

But its dead because (i) the cost of living crisis (admittedly not all this governments fault) (ii) buy to let market has completely gone (iii) stamp duty reforms which have been idiotic and killed parts of the market (iv) slow housing delivery because the market is dead (circular situation) and also because its not viable for developers to build houses they are not sure they can sell whilst they are being clobbered by inflationary costs and additional taxes left, right and centre.

I think the governments basic approach is just to hope there will ultimately be a correction through land values falling significantly which is turn will enable houses to be built more viably but I think they may be waiting a long time. The irony is, of course, that under the current system building more market housing is also the way you get more affordable housing because the government relies on developers to subsidise that.

Posted By: Jim, Apr 28, 11:30:33