Potential house-buyers are now looking for longer-term rental tenancies as their dreams of owning a home and put on hold. Contractors who have invested in property with the intention of renting it out could be amongst those to benefit from a more reliable income.

First time buyers purchasing a home valued at less than £250,000 were granted a two year stamp duty holiday in yesterday’s budget.

HMRC is definitely taking a more aggressive stance to recover some of the estimated £40bn in tax that is currently lost each year.

Lloyds TSB is currently running an ad in the British press that tells its customers “Now’s a great time to reduce how much you owe on your mortgage.”

House purchases fell sharply in January mainly due to the end of the stamp duty holiday on homes worth £125,000 to £175,000. In January, the average cost of a house in the UK was £163,481 according to the Nationwide.

The inability to raise credit from traditional sources such as High Street banks has caused around a million UK consumers to turn to sub-prime credit cards that charge rates up to a massive 60%.

The shortage of affordable housing for first-time buyers coupled with a lack of overall supply is going to cause home ownership numbers to decline further according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Although it may seem hard to believe, the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors housing report shows that the UK housing market actually did better than the majority of Europe last year.

Attempted mortgage fraud was on the increase last year according to the UK’s fraud prevention service, CIFAS.