- Rent inflation slowing
- Takeover rumours
As the Labour government takes control, housing market reform is on the agenda. Rachel Reeves argued in her Mais lecture earlier this year that the UK's dysfunctional planning system is "contributing to the ever higher prices and falling rates of home ownership, and constricting the growth of our most productive places". The party has a housebuilding target of 1.5mn new homes over the next five years, and has pledged action on new towns and specific policies for first-time buyers.
From a listed property company's point of view, the outlook is mixed. It remains to be seen how much progress the new government will make, given the complexity of planning reform. Subsidies will push up prices, as the experience of Help to Buy has shown. But housebuilders could be stung by the party's affordable housing targets on new developments.
