AMI: Budget is missed opportunity for mortgage market

AMI has declared George Osborne’s Budget 2011 a “missed opportunity” to encourage greater mortgage lending and address the Stamp Duty system.

Robert Sinclair, director of AMI, said any measures to help first-time buyers should be welcomed in an effort to revive the housing and mortgage markets and that it was right to extend the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme.

However, he said: "The FirstBuy Direct scheme will only aid a small number of buyers and the government should be wary of helping to shift new build properties that have been hard to sell.

"The problem we face is lenders saying that funding is available and intermediaries struggling to get customers through the more stringent lending criteria being applied.

"The Budget is a missed opportunity to ensure more lending from both state lenders and those lenders who may benefit from this new FirstBuy scheme."

Sinclair added: "The change that would have given a boost to the entire housing market would be a commitment to address the inequity of the overall Stamp Duty system."