More than 73,000 people have been aided by the Government’s Help to Buy scheme since its launch, with the majority being first-time buyers, figures show.
The Help to Buy equity loan scheme was introduced along with other Help to Buy products to support people who can afford a mortgage, but struggle to save the deposits required by lenders in the wake of the financial crisis.
The equity loan part of the scheme has been the most popular, helping 38,052 households to buy a property. The mortgage guarantee part of the scheme has helped 30,269 households to buy a property. The rest of the total was made up by those using the NewBuy scheme, which offers people an opportunity to buy a new build property using a 95 per cent mortgage.
The majority of sales under the Government’s flagship scheme continues to be to first time buyers representing 83% of total sales, the latest figures show.
The data from the
Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) also shows that the average (mean) purchase price was £211,566 in the first 20 months since the scheme was launched.
‘Our long term economic plan has turned this country around from the one we inherited, suffering from a crashed economy and a housing market where builders wouldn’t build, lenders wouldn’t lend and buyers couldn’t buy,’ said Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis (pictured).
‘Now numbers of first time buyers are at their highest since 2007, house building continues to climb and planning permissions are at record levels. All these measures combined are helping record numbers of people into a new home, including 73,000 households benefiting from
Help to Buy and we will keep striving to get that total even higher,’ he added.
