Help to Buy schemes help 320,000 property purchases

Official figures show the government’s Help to Buy schemes have supported over 320,000 people to buy a home, including more than 275,000 first-time buyers, with nearly all purchases taking place outside London

First time buyers have now opened over one million Help to Buy: ISAs, offering government bonuses of up to £3,000 towards the cost of a first home.

In total, 83,686 completions have taken place across the UK using the Help to Buy: ISA since its launch in December 2015. The most completions have taken place in the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and West Midlands. The statistics show 113,868 bonuses have been paid through the scheme with an average bonus value of £678.

In total more than 320,000 completions have taken place using one or more of the Help to Buy schemes. As well as the 275,000 who used the first time buyers scheme, more than 130,000 completions have now taken place through the Help to Buy equity loan scheme, offering buyers up to 20% in an equity loan so they only need to provide a 5% deposit.

The average house price across all the schemes is £196,092, below the average UK house price, and over 90% of completions across all the Help to Buy schemes have taken place outside of London.

The London Help to Buy scheme provides an equity loan of up to 40% for buyers in the capital with a 5% deposit. It has helped over 4,500 buyers in the capital across 33 boroughs purchase their own property between February 2016 and June 2017.

The government’s Help to Buy: ISA scheme was launched on 1 December 2015 to provide first-time buyers the opportunity to save up to £200 a month with the government topping up their contributions by 25%, up to a maximum of £3,000.

First-time buyers will be able to open a Help to Buy: ISA until 30 November 2019. Existing account holders can continue to save in their ISA account until 30 November 2029 when accounts will close to additional contributions. Bonuses can be claimed until 1 December 2030.

The Treasury’s quarterly Help to Buy: ISA scheme statistics are here

CCH Daily