The budget generally was quite positive for the housing market as it stands: it will certainly help people to find their deposits, and the return of the 95% mortgage will also help younger buyers.

The mortgage guarantee scheme – Help To Buy – remains a good supply of credit to the first time home seeker, although the worry, as Simon Crone, vice president of Mortgage Insurance Europe says, is that there is a ‘risk of a cliff effect’ next year when the scheme is pulled back.

The announcement of a £150 million pound custom build initiative extending the Right to Build also addresses the historical problems of boom and bust – the imbalance of supply and demand, so at the moment, the housing market is blooming, rather than booming!

Mr Osborne has, however, opened the coffers by allowing those approaching retirement age access to the lump sums in their pension pot to invest as they see fit rather than forcing them to buy annuities.

The question is, is this a good thing for the housing market? The danger is that this may lead to a rush for buy-to-let properties, causing a shortage of homes to buy at the first step of the ladder, as bricks and mortar remain one of the most attractive assets to invest in, often providing an income of 5% more of the capital put in.

This may be one reason why the expensive Stamp Duty remains in place, unpopular with all Association members as it acts as an unfair barrier to first time buyers and restricts the demand for new homes.

The anxiety is that the Chancellor may not have properly tackled the supply /demand balance. He has acknowledged the possibility that the release of large sums to invest may be problematical, as he has put disincentives in place for those considering buying as a corporate body, but that may mean more people searching for properties below the Stamp Duty threshold which will disadvantage our first time buyers and continue to restrict supply as demand increases.

Should interest rate rises be needed to dampen the market will not be so severe as to put the brakes on a steady expansion and will keep current mortgages at manageable levels.

As pension money is released in greater sums into the housing market, particularly after next April, money should feed in further up the ladder. The hope is that this will assist the greater economy to expand without the housing market overheating.

As usual, this is a market that we will have to watch, and we shall have to work to ensure that the investment is in property at home, rather than abroad.

The expectation of most professionals in the business is, however, that the price increase should be at a steady rate, and should level out, benefitting the housing market as a whole, not just in London and the South East.