Conservative leader, David Cameron, has pledged to offer homes discounted at 20 per cent below market value to people under the age of 40.
According to Housemark:
Speaking before his party’s annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Cameron said 100,000 homes would be provided for young first-time buyers. The Prime Minister said that the ‘starter homes’ would be discounted by exempting them from certain taxes and the zero-carbon homes standard. He said:
‘We will make these starter homes 20 per cent cheaper by exempting them from a raft of taxes and by using brownfield land.
‘I don’t want to see young people locked out of home ownership. We’ve already started to tackle the problem with Help to Buy mortgages – and these new plans will help tens of thousands more people to buy their first home.’
The move could prove controversial as it would exempt developers from section 106 requirements, designed to ensure that a proportion of new homes are affordable.
Since brownfield land can be bought more cheaply than other land, Mr Cameron says ‘savings from purchases can be passed on to buyers’.