The new surcharge for buy-to-let purchases came into effect on the 1st of this month. Rob Lovell, Branch Manager of our Jeffries Southsea office comments on how he saw the market respond during the run-up to the increase.
” We experienced increased activity in January and February from investment buyers rushing to beat the new surcharge. This had a noticeable effect on the local supply and demand of property and subsequently influenced the property prices. The market demand has been heavily influenced by the buy to let market with such low bank rates. The levels of buyers were high but this will reduce now that this surcharge is in place. We expect this to reduce the numbers of buyers looking and with less demand the prices may drop back in some areas of the market”
Rob shares his thoughts on how the market conditions will shape up now for the rest of 2016.” We believe that when these kinds of legislative changes are introduced it takes the housing market approximately 3-6 months to settle. The prices adjust if there is a reduction in demand and eventually the price of the property will reflect the increase in the costs of buying it”.
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