Dr Craig DalȝellNews: Housing developer profits to go up by £10k per unit.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25936164.snps-10k-pledge-first-time-scottish-home-buyers-work/
Houba"THE SNP will offer £10,000 to first-time home-buyers in Scotland if they retain power in Edinburgh at the next Holyrood elections, First Minister John Swinney has said."
If it is a good policy, you are the government now, so what are you waiting for??
Ah, I get it, it is a bribe.
Highlands & Islands Greens@houba It's quite a large financial and administrative undertaking. Surely it would be awkward to saddle a different government with this programme, if the SNP were to be unable to form a gov't after the election (unlikely, but possible). And if the new government decided not to continue it, you'd have a stupid situation where a handful of people got the grant/loan, and nobody else.
At least that's how the rationale looks to us.
As per Craig's comment the policy would be a payout to house developers or property owners, signaling to them that the SNP are on their side, it would also track well with young voters who are intending to buy, all with the help of the government to keep house equity high.
How about limit property ownership, and force sales below market value to make it affordable to first time buyers, along with a ban on bank or asset management home ownership?
@houba @HI_Greens It's actually worse than that. It's not a cash grant but an equity loan to be paid back when the house is sold, but paid depending on the change in price of the house. So if the house price doubles, you'd pay back £20k.
This incentivises ScotGov to keep inflating house prices to maximise their gains.
While @HI_Greens have it right on their rationale, it's also true that this is the time to make those campaign promises. It is always slightly awkward for the sitting government to do so as, you're right, why didn't they do it before?
Well, "before" for the SNP was an FM or two ago, with different priorities and/or it simply might never have occurred to them till now.
(Which should be taken as an endorsement of this one....I think I'll be writing about it next week)