New stats show how Help to Buy is opening up home ownership to thousands and supporting the government’s long term plan to help hardworking people secure a better future for their families.
In total 27,861 households have been helped by the scheme, which continues to overwhelmingly benefit first-time buyers, with the vast majority of sales outside of London and at prices well below the national average.
Help to Buy is also helping to increase housing supply, with the scheme driving demand for new-build homes. 74% of the homes bought through Help to Buy are new-build properties and we are seeing encouraging progress in the number of homes being built. Private house building is up 34% since the launch of Help to Buy and leading builders credit the scheme for reinvigorating the house building industry and boosting housing supply.
Find out more about the Help to Buy scheme and how you could benefit.
First-time buyers
The figures reveal that 85% of Help to Buy sales are to first-time buyers, showing how although Help to Buy accounts for only a small percentage of overall house sales (recent estimates suggest less than 3%), the scheme is continuing to successfully target the people who need a helping hand to get on the housing ladder.
Help to Buy is supporting responsible lending, with the average house price for the combined schemes at £191,295, or £151,597 for mortgage guarantee and £204,805 under the equity loan scheme – all of which are well below the UK average house price of £252,000.
The average house price to income multiple under the mortgage guarantee scheme is just over 3x salary.
The figures also show how Help to Buy is benefiting every region of the country, with the North West as the highest region for the Mortgage Guarantee, while the Equity Loan - the scheme for new-build properties– at its highest in the South East. Over 94% of completions under the scheme remain outside London.
Figures for the mortgage guarantee scheme also show completions have been least concentrated in regions where house price growth is highest, for instance in London the scheme makes up just 0.6% of all mortgage lending compared to an average of 1.3% across the country.