Housing prices have been increasing since earlier this year with the government committed to supporting the housing market. The Budget announcement saw two elements of change to help increase housing market activity levels. The first was that the Stamp Duty holiday will be continuing, until June for purchases up to £500,000 and the end of September for those up to £250,000. After this, the thresholds will resume to pre-pandemic levels. This will hopefully continue to provide relief for home buyers, for a bit longer, than the previous March Deadline.

Additionally, the lender guarantee scheme of 95% was brought in to help provide a boost to the mortgage market. This scheme seems very similar to the Help to Buy Mortgage scheme that was used back in 2013 and 2017. Hopefully these two programs, endorsed by the UK government, will help provide the stimulus needed in bringing the housing market back out of the pandemic slump.