The Intermediary – October 2026 - Flipbook - Page 29
R A P I D R E AC T I O N
Your First Home
Michael Clifford
commercial director at District &
County Investments
From a developer’s perspective, anything that
helps more first-time buyers overcome the
deposit barrier, thus enabling more to buy a
new-build home, has the potential to support
both confidence and housing delivery with
developers, which should be welcomed.
One of the challenges developers face at the
moment is not necessarily a lack of underlying
demand for good-quality housing, but
uncertainty around sales rates and how quickly
buyers can complete.
If this scheme increases the pool of buyers
able to purchase a new-build property, that
should give developers greater confidence that
there will be customers for the homes they are
building.
The details will be important, particularly
around the property price caps, eligibility
criteria, developer contribution and how quickly
the scheme can be implemented.
However, there is a clear link between
supporting demand and supporting supply, and
this is a welcome incentive to assist with sales of
existing stock, allowing developers to then move
to the next project.
There are risks associated with this type of
assistance, which we have previously seen (i.e.,
reductions in demand at levels slightly over the
max price threshold), but on balance this is
very welcome news. If developers have greater
confidence that homes will sell, it becomes
easier to commit capital to new sites and move
schemes forward.
challenges developers continue to face on the
supply side.
Rising construction costs, planning delays
and requirements such as nutrient neutrality
and biodiversity net gain can all affect the
viability and timescales of developments.
So, while this announcement should be
welcomed, developers still need support to
overcome the barriers to getting projects
delivered profitably and on time.
Stimulating demand is an important part
of the equation, but it needs to be matched by
measures that make it easier to build the homes
that buyers need.
Timothy Douglas
head of policy and campaigns
at Propertymark
We are pleased to see measures to support firsttime buyers onto the property ladder. The deposit
barrier is a key issue that needs to be tackled, as
we highlighted in our evidence to the House of
Commons Housing Committee’s recent inquiry
into the affordability of homeownership.
Looking ahead, the UK Government must not
lose sight of the fact that not all first-time buyers
purchase new-build properties.
Additionally, stimulating the buying and
selling of second-hand homes can generate
greater activity in the wider housing market and
bring further economic benefits.
Neil Leitch
managing director of development
finance at Hampshire Trust Bank
Giuseppe Scozzaro
Across HTB’s development finance book, we are
partner at Goodman Jones
Monthly sales as a proportion of completed
seeing some encouraging signs on the sales side.
stock are increasing, and we are seeing fewer
This is a positive step for the housing market
funded sites go for two months without a sale.
and something housebuilders and developers
Against that backdrop, measures which
have been calling for, particularly given the
help first-time buyers overcome the deposit
challenge many first-time buyers face in saving
barrier and support home ownership should
a deposit.
By helping more prospective buyers get onto
the housing ladder, the scheme should, in
time, translate into stronger demand, more
reservations and improved cashflow for
be welcomed. But unless government sorts
planning, there is a danger much of this
becomes pointless.
There is little value in stimulating demand for
new homes if developers still cannot get viable
developers. For SME developers in particular,
schemes through the system in a reasonable and
greater certainty around demand could help
predictable way.
make more projects viable and support the
delivery of additional homes.
The encouraging signs we are seeing on
sales do not remove that front-end uncertainty.
However, this is ultimately a demand-side
Planning remains costly, slow and inconsistent,
measure and doesn’t address the significant
and that is affecting both the number and type
p
October 2026 | The Intermediary
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