Homeowners are hoping to see a rebound in the housing market to boost their equity levels.  Without adequate equity levels the homeowner cannot remortgage nor do they have access to the cheapest remortgage deals.  Some homeowners need property values to rebound to bring them out of negative equity.

Without first time buyers experts agree that the property ladder is basically frozen.  First time buyers need to buy starter homes.  Without starter homes being purchased then there is no one to buy and allow a homeowner to upgrade to a larger property.  Then that homeowner upgrades and so on.  First time buyers are essential to the housing market and to help house prices and property values rally.

The stamp duty holiday was put into place two years ago but government officials saw little impact from the discount.  In the final months there was a slight increase in first time buyer demand but not enough to extend the holiday.  Therefore the stamp duty holiday was allowed to expire this past weekend.

The NewBuy scheme is expected to have more of an impact in helping first time buyers get onto the property ladder.  Through assistance from home builders and the government first time buyers have only to come up with a 5-10 per cent deposit.  This should prove beneficial since first time buyers put much blame on the inability to purchase on high deposit demands.  However, this scheme only helps first time buyers going into new build properties, which leaves the starter homes still without demand from first time buyers.  Those homeowners hoping to sell will have competition from the appeal of lower deposits and newer construction offered by NewBuy.  Homeowners may see a rebound in property values but NewBuy won’t help them sell.