House sales halved in two years

HOUSE sales in Warrington have dropped by 51 per cent over a period of two years, new figures have revealed.
In 2006, 4,901 homes were sold in the borough, compared with only 2,436 last year.
Since then, the situation has worsened still further and across the country there is a similar picture – yet the Government has made it more costly and more difficult to move home, according to a Warrington Parliamentary hopeful.
David Mowat, (pictured) Prospective Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Warrington South said: “The new figures expose how Gordon Brown’s recession has sent Warrington’s housing market into freefall. It is incredibly short-sighted for Labour Ministers to increase red tape on the housing market in the middle of a recession and make it even worse.
“We need action to revive the market, by reducing moving costs for home owners and giving extra help to help first-time buyers get onto the housing ladder.”
Mr Mowat said the Government’s Land Registry was increasing fees to register a new home or buy an official property search in July.
Ironically, the Land Registry was blaming the recession for forcing them to put up prices as housing transactions have fallen so much, cutting their income.
The increases would in turn increase the cost of the already expensive Home Information Packs (HIPs).
On top of this, new HIP rules have come into effect which further hinder sellers from putting their homes onto the market.
The Conservatives are calling on the Government Ministers to use their emergency powers to suspend HIPs immediately, and then abolish them completely. They are also calling for the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers to be raised to £250,000, taking nine out of 10 first-time buyers out of stamp duty altogether, giving an important boost to the housing market.