A return of the prime London market, a boost in sales of homes over £1.5m and thousands of new starter homes are all on the menu following the Conservative win in the 2015 General Election.

Stephanie McMahon, Head of Research at Strutt & Parker was, like many, shocked that the pollsters got it so wrong with few predicting a majority win. The majority means that in the coming days and weeks we’ll be getting straight into the new government policies.

What can we expect?

With uncertainty surrounding the election, the prime central London property market had suffered a slowdown, which, Stephanie McMahon says, will now go into reverse.

She says: “The prime central London markets displayed a marked reduction in volumes over the past nine months and this result will likely put an end to that.”

She adds that the more favourable approach to property tax of the Conservatives will serve to immediately increase confidence for those buying and selling homes over £1.5 million and she would not be surprised to see a surge in pent up activity.

Building new homes

Part of the Conservative party manifesto was the plan to build 200,000 starter homes.

Along with this was the investing of a predicted £4.5bn raised from Right to Buy into new property and a £1bn brownfield regeneration fund that aims to build 400,000 additional new houses over five years.

While Stephanie welcomes the proposed new homes, she questions the plausibility of this supply side approach.

She says: “With annual supply levels at some of their lowest since the 80s, we question how plausible this supply side reaction is.

“In the event of low supply, the added Conservative stimulus to the demand side via Help to Buy ISAs and Right to Buy will result in further pricing pressure on existing stock.”

In regards to the rental market, Stephanie McMahon wonders whether Labour’s plan for 3 year tenancies and index-linked rate rent rises were needed in the first place as average tenancies currently sit at 18 months.

Right to Buy

As part of the extension of the Right to Buy, councils and housing associations will be required to sell their 210,000 most-valuable properties first, once they became vacant.

Figures show a fifth of council house tenants in England live in homes worth more than the average privately-owned home in their areas and around 29 council properties across the UK are valued at over £1m.

Some predict that a lot of these homes will eventually be bought up by investors and private landlords.