Political parties have been pretty quiet on housing policy during the General Election campaign and industry groups are hopeful that tonight’s first TV election debate will put the issue on the agenda.
Ahead of tonight’s head-to-head debate on ITV, Rightmove is asking Conservative leader Rishi Sunak and Labour’s Keir Starmer to ensure housing is a key topic.
The portal is also running its own advertising campaign to call for a bigger housing focus through national print and social media.
Rightmove’s director of agent partnerships Christian Balshen said: “We want to make sure that housing is at the forefront in the lead up to the election.
“Whilst we know that most people are carying on with their home-moving plans, there will be another group of people thinking of moving later this year and beyond who want to hear more.
“We’re trying to get it higher up the agenda to help agents and home-movers, and we’ll continue to push for long-term solutions rather than short-term schemes.”
It comes after Rightmove last week asked agents, landlords, homeowners and renters what they would like to see
The main concerns were Stamp Duty and undersupply of housing.
This has been echoed by UK Finance, which has suggested increasing Stamp Duty bands annually in line with the UK House Price Index.