Budget purges uncertainty from housing market

The third budget from Minister for Finance Brian Cowen may not have contained any concessions on stamp duty, but estate agents have taken some comfort from the fact that it has at least restored an air of certainty to the property market.

An immediate effect of the minister’s speech was that a number of buyers who had agreed deals on properties, but who were delaying on signing contracts to benefit from possible stamp duty changes, were making arrangements to complete the deals.

‘‘There are a lot of relieved vendors out there this weekend who have finally seen movement on the sale of their homes,” said Declan Cassidy, managing director of Gunne Residential. ‘‘An awful lot ...