Housing Shares Rally Despite Scepticism Of Stamp Duty Holiday

Shares in housebuilders rallied following the government's decision to lift the stamp duty threshold for a year from £125,000 to £175,000.

Persimmon shares climbed 10% while shares in Taylor Wimpey and Bovis Homes both improved 8% in price.The government also announced a package of other measures to boost the ailing UK housing market, including cheap mortgages for first-time buyers, however these have been met with scepticism from a number of experts.

Here is what some had to say:

Peter Redfern, chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, said that the package was a group of “incrementally small but helpful things, that won't kick start the market”

Richard Lambert, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry, admitted that the Government had limited room to manoeuvre, but said the changes to stamp duty "may turn out to be largely symbolic and will not be cost free".

James Scott-Lee, a spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said: "The Government has failed to listen to the property industry and respond to market pressures and their proposed measures will have little impact on those suffering as a result of the current crisis."

Sue Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Council of Mortgage Lenders added: "It is questionable whether it will incentivise buyers who wouldn’t have entered the market anyway."