Cameron woos voters with discount starter homes

Britain's prime minister David Cameron pledged on Saturday to build 100,000 new homes and offer them to younger first-time buyers at a 20 percent discount if his party wins a national election in May. The extension of the ruling Conservative's "Help to Buy" scheme - meant to get people on the housing ladder - was announced on the eve of the party's annual conference, the last before the vote.
Property is a politically potent issue in a country facing a housing shortage that has helped push prices nearly 10 percent higher nationally in the past year, and much more in London. The "Starter Homes" plan, would only cover houses built on brownfield sites, land which has already set aside for commercial purposes, in England, the Conservatives said in a statement. Buyers aged under 40 would get the discount on the market value, made "possible because a Conservative government will exempt them from taxes, reduce development costs and allow the release of cheaper brownfield commercial land to build these homes on," the party added.