In our quarterly (Q2) update for our fictional housebuilder fund that was first created back in October 2014, it would impossible not to mention the summer Budget, which certainly 'put the cat amongst the pigeons' with regards to whether investors should sell or hold onto their shares in companies like Barratt and Taylor Wimpey.

Up until the Budget, our fictional fund was still outperforming the stock market, with Barratt and Taylor Wimpey the two best performing shares in the FTSE 100 in the first half of 2015 and with Persimmon in fourth place overall. The three combined achieved share price growth in excess of 30% on average in the first six months of this year, which is outstanding when you consider that the FTSE 100 fell by 1% during the same period.

The other two shares in our fund, Berkeley Group and Bellway Homes, which are listed in the FTSE 250, certainly did not disappoint either, soaring by 27% and 20% in the second quarter alone and by 35% and 22%, respectively, overall for the first half of this year.

But then came the Budget on the 8th of July and everything appeared to be going rather pear shaped! There was an immediate correction to housebuilder shares after the Chancellor removed the higher rate tax relief on buy to let mortgages, resulting in over £1.5bn being wiped from the value of the big eight companies in one day, with most shares down on average by 5%.