By way of Mr. Worstall, a not-massively-publicised piece of the Chancellor’s statement, that the promised changes in pension regulations to allow money invested in property to gain tax relief, have been scrapped.
Given that these changes have been publicised for two years now, and have formed the reason for institutional investors to continue to buy (or plan-to-buy) flats, on the basis that the new money coming into the sector as a result of SIPPS investments will keep the whole thing buoyant, and in turn have led some stalled schemes to be relaunched, it could have an, uhhr, interesting effect on the housing market.
In places like Manchester, where the stock of city-centre flats is continuing to rise at an astonishing rate, the one thing all commentators have talked about in the last year is that the changes in SIPPS regulations will keep the demand bouyant. I’d suggest a period of, uhhr, substantial price re-adjustment.