Mortgage Solutions reports today that the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) has called for the government to push the UK’s housing shortage up the policy agenda and halt the decline in housing starts. IMLA executive director Peter Williams said: “We need a national debate on the issue of housing, not for next year, but for the next 50 years. A debate that shows we understand the importance of different tenures, the role of private landlords and how we can support them in this role.”
At the HSBC Great Housing Debate in April, Yolande Barnes, director of residential research at Savills, said that “normality” would never return adding: “It is the income streams of buy-to-let and not the capital investment which is going to be the next big thing in this market and while underlying demand is there, it will continue to expand.”
Yolande Barnes is absolutely right – ‘Normality’ will not return. Action, not just debate is needed to address the housing issue head on.
Those that have been following our progress will know we’ve been debating with key housing members for some time now and feel an injection of private money from institutional investors into the sector is the only way to make immediate impact and to provide a long term sustainable solution.
We’ve developed a model to allow this that is ready to go and will certainly be happy to partake in any debate to push this issue into the political forefront.
Watch David Toplas respond to CLG inquiry – Financing the New Housing Supply
