Apartments ''appeal to city slickers''

It is mainly young people who are buying new homes because young city slickers want to live in small apartments, according to one property expert.

The managing director of smartnewhomes.com, Dave Bexon, reports that the sorts of people who property developers'' large scale city projects appeal to is the ABC 1 sector.

He said: "In terms of new home buyers you have everything from shared ownership with the affordable schemes to every new home development over a certain size needing to have affordable sections."

He said that either home builders or the government offers shared equities in homes plus some homes being specially built for retirees or people who want to downsize.

Yesterday the Chancellor Gordon Brown announced a tax break for granny flats where VAT was reduced from 17.5 per cent to five per cent on building alterations for the purpose of accommodating elderly relatives.

However he was criticised for not including any measures to target fuel poverty which affects many older people.


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