The Budget, announced yesterday, drew a range of reactions from the property industry with many thinking first-time buyers were neglected.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) welcomed the announcements of further consultation on market-led solutions to strengthen the mortgage funding market, and hopes for early progress with active participation by the Bank of England. However, CML also thought there was a lack of urgency on sale-and-leaseback schemes as the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have been tasked with undertaking a review of the operation of such schemes but no timescale has been set to tighten up requirements in this sector.

CML, as well as developer Galliford Try, welcomed the modest announcements relating to shared equity schemes for key worker first-time buyers but believe they are unlikely to offer any short term relief to affordability and entry costs for other first-time buyers in the housing market, where a stamp duty reprieve would have done so.

Chris Coates, managing director of Galliford Try Homes, said: “It is disappointing that Chancellor Alistair Darling has given little tangible help to the majority of first-time buyers in his first budget. While stamp duty will now not be payable on shared ownership properties until buyers own 80% of the equity in their home, the Government knows the take up of these schemes is miniscule compared to the wider housing market.

“At present, 61% of first-time buyers pay stamp duty and the numbers paying higher levels has risen to 11%. The Chancellor is out of touch with the financial pressures facing this group and seems unable to grasp their importance in the housing market.”

In addition, according to Savills, the clarification of the proposals for the taxation of non-doms in the Budget will free up London’s prime property market by providing a degree of certainty, but will nonetheless have a dampening effect over the next 12-24 months, during which time prices are expected to show little growth.