Help to Buy: helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder

2 Sep 2014 11:28 AM

Official statistics show more than 48,000 people have bought a home through the scheme.

Since the launch of the two parts of Help to Buy, the equity loan andmortgage guarantee schemes:

• 82% of scheme completions have been made by first-time buyers
• the average house price was £187,800, significantly below the national average
• more than 48,000 people have bought a home through the scheme
• 94% of Help to Buy completions took place outside of London

Today’s Help to Buy official statistics show that the government’s scheme is successfully targeting the people that need it most, having helped almost 40,000 first-time buyers onto the housing ladder since the scheme launched last year.

Out of a total of 48,393 Help to Buy completions to date, 82% have been made by first-time buyers.

This demonstrates that while Help to Buy continues to account for only a small percentage of overall mortgage transactions (2.5% for mortgage guarantee and 4% for equity loan), the scheme successfully targets those who need a helping hand to get on the housing ladder.

Help to Buy also continues to support responsible lending: the average house price for both parts of the scheme, at £187,800 (£153,148 for the mortgage guarantee and £209,390 for the equity loan scheme), remains significantly below the national average house price of £265,000.

The Chancellor has been clear that responsible lending is a core aspect of Help to Buy. On 26 June he announced that new mortgage guarantee loanswould be restricted to 4.5 times borrowers’ income, in line with the introduction of a loan-to-income limit on mortgage lending by the Bank of England.

This introduced a further safeguard to ensure that the mortgage guarantee scheme continues to support responsible lending.

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