Budget 2026: what the Chancellor's measures mean for estate agents

The Chancellor's Budget today gives first-time buyers a new way into a new-build home, Your First Home, with deposits from 2.5% and the first loans in April 2027. The Budget's only stamp duty changes are technical. We've gone through every property measure in the Budget document, and below is what each one means for a branch, with what you can do now about the ones that touch your week.

Going into the Budget, agents had little hope of help. Selling has been slow this autumn, and our October house price index shows homes taking longer to find a buyer than a year ago. The Budget doesn't change that this side of Christmas: its main measure for buyers lends nothing until April.

What was announced

• Your First Home. Government equity loans of up to 20% for first-time buyers in England buying a new-build home from a developer signed up to the scheme. Deposits start at 2.5%, the loan is interest free for five years, and household income is capped at £110,000, or £140,000 in London. Price caps follow local median prices, with £650,000 in inner London and £500,000 in outer London (see London asking prices). Pre-registration opens by the end of December, applications in February and the first loans in April 2027.
• Stamp duty. The Budget's only stamp duty changes are technical. The one lettings teams will notice removes stamp duty from rent paid under assured tenancies in England, effective from 1 May 2026, following the Renters' Rights Act.
• The homebuying reforms. The Budget lists the Home Buying and Selling Roadmap among its savings for business, at an estimated £116 million a year. It doesn't say what changes for buyers and sellers, or when.
• Lifetime ISA. From 29 October, a first-time buyer who spends Lifetime ISA savings on a home above the £450,000 cap pays a 20% withdrawal charge instead of 25%. A new First Time Buyer ISA replaces it for new savers from April 2029.
• High Value Council Tax Surcharge. Confirmed for England, with a deferral scheme, discounts and exemptions, and a 100% premium on homes left empty for 12 months or more. Buyers and sellers can check a home's council tax band and see what it means for them.
• For agency owners. The lifetime limit for Business Asset Disposal Relief, the lower capital gains rate when you sell a business, halves from £1 million to £500,000 from April 2027.

First-time buyers and new homes

Your First Home is for new builds only, so the buyers it brings in go to developers, not to the resale homes most branches sell. Agents still feel it. Some of them would otherwise have bought a resale home, and some will now wait for the scheme to open.

That makes the next few months awkward. Pre-registration opens by the end of December, but no loan arrives before April, so expect some first-time buyers to pause while they find out whether they qualify. The ones who don't, over the income cap or looking above the local price cap, are still your buyers, and the Lifetime ISA change helps those buying above £450,000 from 29 October.

Upfront information and the homebuying reforms

The Budget mentions the homebuying reforms only as a saving for business. There's no timetable and no detail on what a seller will have to provide, or when. Our position hasn't changed: the reforms only help movers if the property information and the checks are done before a home goes on the market, not chased after a sale is agreed. Agents who already work that way are ahead, whatever the law ends up saying.

This is the part of the Budget an agent can act on before any law changes. On home.co.uk an agency can already run free AML and ID checks and get documents signed with HomeSign from the same account, and build Material Information packs there too. Conveyancing through Home sits alongside, so the legal work can start sooner.

The Budget mentions the homebuying reforms only as a saving for business.

What we think

This is a Budget for first-time buyers of new homes, and for next spring rather than this winter. For the resale market most agents work in, it changes little: its stamp duty changes are technical, and the homebuying reforms are still a roadmap with a savings figure attached. A move still takes too long and can still fall apart late, and that's the part agents can fix themselves, by getting the information in place before the board goes up.

Whatever the Budget does to demand, an agency's costs are its own to control. Listing on home.co.uk is free, with no contract.

There's more on pricing, appraisals and running instructions in our guide for estate agents. If you want your branches on Home before the new year, join home.co.uk here.

More in Winning and running instructions: Home for agents

• How to run a market appraisal that wins the instruction

Sources

• Budget 2026 (HC 726). HM Treasury. Accessed 28 October 2026.
• New first-time buyer scheme to be confirmed at Budget. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Accessed 28 October 2026.