Will New Govt Affect UK House Prices?

I thought it was about time I put pen to paper on the difference that I think the election will have on the UK housing market. Some could argue that I am just a tad late, but others will agree that I am right on time.

The latter is true, because the new government, a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition has not long become a reality, and, according to analysts, the property market will likely be an area that their coalition is particularly close on. This will either be very good for the housing market recovery or very bad, with a close coalition passing housing legislation swiftly, there is certainly little chance of things remaining the same.

There has already been evidence to support this, the abolition of the Home Information Pack, one of the best intentioned pieces of legislation ever, with the poorest implementation ever.

Those reliant on property sales to make a living, including most prominently the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the National Association of Estate Agents have long called for the abolition of HIPS, saying that they were slowing the market at a time when it could least afford it. These calls intensified after the government made having the pack mandatory before a home could be put on the market. So, it will be interesting to see if the removal of HIPs does indeed accelerate home sales, and, out of that, what effect the acceleration would have on the fledgling recovery so based on weak supply.

Then we have the reports that a Bill to make it easier for people living in social housing to move around the country could be one of the first pieces of legislation tabled by the new government. A source close to the Conservative Party's housing team has said that the bill would include making it mandatory for social housing landlords to keep a portion of their accommodation vacant for people wanting to move in from elsewhere in the country. The source said that they are considering having the legislation announced in the Queen's speech.

This will hardly please landlords, who are thought to have been a core group behind the Conservatives in hopes they would act favourably towards the property investment industry.

In my opinion, the new government will have very little effect on the housing market in the short term, because, in my opinion we are heading for a second crash and there is nothing anyone can do about it: