22/06/2026
Keir Starmer has resigned. Andy Burnham looks set to walk straight into No.10 — less a leadership race, more a coronation. I’ve been in this industry for 20 years. And I’ll tell you what I know for certain: property markets don’t fear bad news. They fear not knowing.
The succession itself may be swift. But what follows is less predictable. Burnham has long supported Land Value Tax and overhauling Stamp Duty. Whether you think that’s good or bad policy, what it does right now is put a question mark over every high-value transaction in this country.
Buyers and sellers at the top end of the market will likely adopt a wait-and-see approach until there’s greater clarity on where government policy is heading — particularly around housing, taxation and the broader economy.
We’ve seen this before. It doesn’t have to mean paralysis. But it does mean decisions will be made more cautiously until the picture clears.