Commenting on today’s Budget, leading UK property expert Jonathan Rolande, the founder of House Buy Fast said: “My assessment of the 2026 Budget is that it was a surprisingly feel-good affair, with some welcome measures for first-time buyers.
But it tinkers with the symptoms rather than tackling the underlying problems and let’s face it, there are plenty of them.
The new First Time Buyer ISA and the £4.7bn Your First Home scheme could help people who have the income to buy but lack the deposit or family support. That is worth doing. The ISA changes could also remove an unfair penalty for buyers whose chosen home exceeds the current price limit.
But we need to be honest about what these schemes can achieve. If you help people borrow more without increasing the supply of homes, you risk pushing prices up rather than making homes more affordable.
We have a basic problem of supply and demand. The population continues to grow, household needs are changing and we have not built enough homes in the right places at prices people can afford. England added 208,000 homes in 2024-25, down 6% on the previous year. That is not enough to ignore the gap between demand and supply. And with the property market heading downward, developers aren’t confident enough to begin new sites.
This is a Budget with some welcome measures, but no fundamental answer to the housing crisis. We cannot keep making it easier to pay more for homes without dealing with why they cost so much in the first place.”
