You are here: cherry > Press releases for March 2024 > Access FS comment on HMRC property transactions: “People are still feeling the squeeze”

28 March 2024

Karl Wilkinson, CEO at Access Financial Services said: “While these figures are an improvement on last month’s, reflecting the rickety uplift in the market towards the end of last year, they are still low compared to the year before. People are still feeling the squeeze.

“At 3.4%, inflation in the UK is quite a way off the 2% sweet spot and still higher than in the EU where it is 2.6%. While I appreciate caution, I hope that we don’t see the Bank of England continuing to delay a cut in the base rate. We need interest rates to go down soon to make mortgages more affordable, boost consumer confidence and drive sales.

“A Spring Budget cut in stamp duty would have helped. Perhaps by Autumn we’ll have lower interest rates and an election-spurred stamp duty reduction, which would get people making property decisions with more confidence.”