One of the UK’s biggest housebuilders is calling for a stamp duty cut
Key Points
- Housebuilder Bellway has called on the government to cut stamp duty immediately and set-up a state-backed deposit scheme for first-time buyers.
- In a trading update published on Tuesday (11 August), Chief Executive Jason Honeyman said that the changes were needed to get more people on the housing ladder and incentivise new homebuilding.
- Honeyman added that these changes would improve access to housing across all levels, covering both first-time buyers and benefiting affordable and social housing schemes.
- The group's data shows that the average Bellway home sold for around £324,000, up from £316,412.
Housebuilder Bellway has called on the government to cut stamp duty immediately and set-up a state-backed deposit scheme for first-time buyers.
Bellway is one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders and completed 9,700 new homes last year, 10.8% more than the year before, and above its own guidance. Private sales make up 79% of these sales.
In a trading update published on Tuesday (11 August), Chief Executive Jason Honeyman said that the changes were needed to get more people on the housing ladder and incentivise new homebuilding.
“In order to ease affordability constraints and stimulate demand, an immediate reduction in Stamp Duty alongside a government-backed deposit support scheme for first-time buyers would both drive economic growth and accelerate the delivery of much-needed new homes across the country,” Honeyman said.
Honeyman added that these changes would improve access to housing across all levels, covering both first-time buyers and benefiting affordable and social housing schemes.
The cost of a home
Bellway opened 59 new developments over the course of the year from 253 sites, up from 249 last year.
The group’s data shows that the average Bellway home sold for around £324,000, up from £316,412. Bellway said that this change was due to location and the size of homes, rather than any underlying inflation.
Buyer incentives hovered around 5% of the sales prices, up 4.1% from the year before.
Notably, the group noted that customer demand moderated from April on the back of rising mortgage rates, with demand also impacted at the backend of last year due to uncertainty around the Budget.
The group warned that it was now facing a longer stretch of softer demand alongside increased build costs, and that it was keeping tighter control of costs in response.
