ALISTAIR Darling could re-invigorate the housing market at a single stroke if he revives a "much-praised" pension proposal, a group of Edinburgh solicitors has claimed.
The Edinburgh and the Lothians Property Guide (ELPG) group has called on the Chancellor to should lift the ban on holders of Self Invested Personal Pensions (Sipps) being able to invest in residential property.
Under current legislation, the ELPG
said that Sipp holders are only able to invest in commercial properties.
In 2005, the UK government drafted legislation that would have extended the scope of Sipp investments to include residential properties
The proposals were shelved the following year by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown.
The ELPG group – which includes Warners, the Lints Partnership, Neilsons, Drummond Miller and Leslie Deans & Co – said lifting the restrictions will "help reinvigorate the Scottish property market by encouraging more stand-alone buyers to make property purchases".
Steve Spence, a senior partner at Neilsons, said: "The Scottish property market held up well during the early part of the year but there has been a major slow down in recent times.
"If the government permitted Sipp investors to include residential properties in their portfolio the property market would receive a welcome injection of new funds from a totally new class of standalone purchasers.
"There would be winners all round: investors would be attracted to the scheme because of the tax breaks involved in including residential property in the Sipp; the government would progress towards its long-term aim of decreasing dependence on state pension arrangements; and, most importantly, new money would come into the market from people who do not have a property to sell."
The ELPG group claimed each new purchase from a standalone buyer creates a domino effect of around six transactions in the wider market.
In a statement released yesterday, the ELPG added: "The Scottish market will then pick up very much faster than the English market because our system of missives allows individual property deals to be agreed without reference to what may be happening in other transactions up and down the chain."
The full article contains 355 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
