Behnam Afshar, Director at AMA Homes said:   “While the reintroduction of funding to Scotland’s affordable housing scheme is a promising step forward, the Government has not promised much else in the way of housing for Scotland. Because of this, the UK wide budget’s decisions on housing will undoubtably have an impact on us here. With increased borrowing following the Westminster budget, we can expect mortgage rates to rise. However, as the Bank of England has knocked interest rates back to 4.75%, this will hopefully do enough to ensure the housing market continues steadily, with reports suggesting a stronger year ahead in both volumes of sales and percentage increase prices. I am expecting to see greater market confidence in general in Scotland than in England. As a devolved nation, we rely less on the workings of Westminster politics to stimulate our housing market, and I am confident we will see more home movers in Scotland in 2025. “While England has seen a change to both the Stamp Duty rates for first-time buyers and second homeowners, we are reassured here in Scotland that the LBTT rates and first-time buyer relief will stay the same until 2026. This provides some stability for those considering a purchase in 2025 and should add a confidence boost to the Scottish market. While in the south, people will be spending the next couple of months trying to rush a purchase, or calling off their search entirely, here in Scotland we can expect a continuous level in interest in homebuying. While house price growth is predicted to slow in 2025, I imagine that this will happen at an accelerated rate in England, compared to Scotland, due to the difference in the Stamp Duty and LBTT payment expectations in both countries.” Jim Baxter, Financial Director at Allanwater Homes said:   “While I welcome the reversal in cuts to Scotland’s affordable housing budget, I believe the Government could have done more to support housebuilders in Scotland. The budget could have been used to address other key challenges in the housing sector, including rising costs and supply chain disruptions. Unfortunately, the Scottish Government followed Westminster’s lead, improving minimum wages and pensions but without incentivising employers to expand workforces, and with little incentive to meet the current housing shortfall.  “However, homeownership is still an important aspiration in Scotland, and there must be support made available to first time buyers too. I would like to see the Scottish Government look to reintroduce financial support for home buyers, such as reintroducing Help to Buy or Shared Equity schemes, in order to make homeownership accessible once again for a new generation of first time buyers.  “However, there is also significant pressure on SME housebuilders to deliver. Regulatory reforms are urgently needed to address the housing pipeline, including streamlined planning permissions for residential development to enable quicker project launches and reduce delays. Equally, greater flexibility in zoning would allocate more land for residential projects, particularly in high-demand areas.  “I would also like to see the Scottish Government take a closer look at our supply chains, and support the local production of construction materials to reduce dependence on imports, and then stabilising costs to make this achievable.”  Michael Pratt, Director at Timber Engineering & Invertay Homes, comments:  “Housebuilders desperately need the Scottish Government to do more to help SME’s with the broken system for financing new-build developments. Traditional forms of lending for development finance have become too restrictive and onerous for most SME’s to obtain. With land acquisition, planning, developer contributions and regulatory requirements now swallowing up so much equity at the front-end of every development it is very difficult to make the numbers stack up for ‘traditional lenders’. Coupled with the high level of construction industry insolvencies over the last 4 years, lenders are becoming very risk averse meaning developers need to commit more of their own money for longer with smaller returns. It is fast approaching a point where the ‘juice isn’t worth the squeeze’ particularly given many developers have to provide personal guarantees to secure lending. While that money is tied up it can’t be deployed on other developments.  “Scotland is in the middle of a Housing Emergency. While it’s an encouraging move to see the Government recommit to funding affordable housing,we simply don’t have enough homes for the growing needs of the country – and yet new housing is at its lowest output since 2009 which can be largely attributed to the reduction on the number of SME housebuilders. The Scottish Government needs to do everything it can to help SME’s grow their output and we would strongly endorse a similar Government Guaranteed scheme such as what has been proposed for England and Wales last week. It is not a silver bullet but a Scottish ‘Help to Build’ initiative could lay the foundations for a much-needed resurgence in house building in Scotland.”  Matt Colgan, Founder of Sustainabuild, comments:    “The cost of net zero in Scotland is always going to come with a hefty price tag – and any government would face challenges in committing the billions that are needed. Funding for green skills is a great way to invest in the planet as without the workforce to retrofit our homes and buildings and deliver our green infrastructure, we lose the ability to deliver on net zero,  Furthermore, with investment in green skills in our country,  Scotland can become a global leader in developing green jobs and employment which means we won’t have to sacrifice on profit in order to make more sustainable choices.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals