Until the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s pre-Budget announcement at the start of December 2005, the financial services market in the UK was getting very excited about residential property purchase via pensions.

April 2006 was supposed to be the date from which Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) would allow the investor an extended range of assets into which his or her pension fund could invest. This was to include fine wines, vintage cars and residential property both in the UK and abroad.

The concept of a second home in the sun, with full tax relief on the purchase at the maximum of 40%, was stimulating some interesting conversations in offices and boardrooms across the country.

But, alas, Mr Brown has pooped the party at the eleventh hour. No longer will this extended list come into being, and the reason quoted…? The proposals as they stood would simply be open to too much abuse.

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