One of the key factors that contributed towards the current financial climate was people borrowing more than they could actually afford. Lenders were confident that house prices would continue to rise so if they had to repossess houses they would be OK. The property market was booming and it wouldn’t be a problem to sell the repossessed house on. So, that clearly hasn’t quite worked out the way everyone wanted and who is really going to feel the pain? It’s Mr. Joe Public. Now that mortgage lenders no longer want ‘high risk’ business they are starting to tighten their criteria

Whose idea was it to increase the Stamp Duty threshold in a vain attempt at ‘kick-starting’ the property slump? Whoever it was, did much thought, planning and assessing of the potential outcomes take place? Look at it from the eyes of a purchaser. If a house is seen on the market for £190,000 what is the likely offer a potential buyer would have made a few months ago? Because the previous stamp duty threshold was £125,000 a sensible offer would not take this into consideration and would probably come in at about £185,000. Now because of the new threshold, buyers