What the New Labour Government Means for the UK Property Market

The UK’s Labour Party won the UK election in a landslide this morning, taking power from the Conservatives after 14 years in an incredible overhaul of the previous government’s position and winning the majority vote. New Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, and the Labour Party have proposed many manifesto policies that seek to better the UK’s economic standing throughout their election campaign, but one that has caught the attention of many in the UK property market is the promise of 1.5 million new homes in 5 years.

Labour plans to build more homes

In a landslide win this morning, the UK’s Labour Party has taken power from the Conservative Party after winning the majority vote and gaining a staggering +211 seats in Parliament as the Conservatives lost –250 with a further three seats still waiting to be declared at the time of writing.

As part of their campaign manifesto, Kier Starmer and his Labour Party proposed an additional 1.5 million new homes across the UK in the first 5 years of a Labour government, with the aim to boost affordable housing, supporting first-time buyers, and creating new towns while still protecting green space across the country.

New properties expected to encourage lower mortgage rates

This comes as 50% of voters polled last week thought that the government should be doing more to build more homes with the UK property market becoming a hot topic of conversation throughout the election campaign over the last month.

This injection of new property is expected to boost housebuilding stocks, as well as support interest rates and mortgage rates lowering, leading to increased market activity and allowing better opportunities for both first-time buyers and investors alike.

With house prices continuing to rise alongside rents, the increase in the number of available properties will not only bring balance to the supply and demand discrepancies currently being felt in both the housing and rental market, but bring more affordable homes into a market that is currently severely undersupplied.

More support for first-time buyers and mortgage rates are expected

The first Budget and Fiscal update may not be announced until September, in which Labour is likely to unveil their major political announcements, but they have promised to deliver a Freedom to Buy Scheme, offering support for first-time buyers to get onto the property ladder in the midst of high rates and large deposit requirements.

Prior to the historical win, Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla highlighted that “British voters have high expectations from a new government on housing. The overarching response is ‘build more homes, but other things matter too” which explains further why the UK property market featured so heavily in the campaigns leading up to the 4^th July, but also why Labour have declared their plans for the housing market so soon after their win.

To learn more about how the UK property market is expected to recover under a new Labour government or speak to our expert team about our available properties, get in touch today.