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First-time Buyers

Help to Buy vital to first-time buyers

Adam Williams
Written By:
Adam Williams
Posted:
Updated:
03/06/2015

The Help to Buy scheme is still crucial to helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder, a lender has said.

Figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government showed that 80% of scheme completions were been made by first-time buyers.

The average house bought under the scheme was worth £184,000, below the national average.

In total almost 94,000 people have bought a home using the scheme.

Charles Haresnape, managing director of mortgages and commercial lending at Aldermore, said the scheme was working as planned as helping young buyers onto the ladder.

“Statistics from the Treasury show that 78% of those who used the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee were first time buyers and clearly demonstrate that the scheme is helping those consumers who most need help to get on the housing ladder,” he said.

“The scheme has proved successful in fulfilling its original aims of helping first time buyers, those on low incomes and those outside of London and the South East, as it has supported a higher proportion of people in the Northwest and the East, with over half of all mortgage completions through the scheme on properties worth £150,000 or less.”

Some 95% of Help to Buy completions took place outside of London and more than half of all completions have been for new-build homes.

“The data also showed that mortgage completions through the scheme across Scotland and Wales were proportionally higher that the UK as a whole, showing the balancing effect the programme has had in helping those who need it most,” Haresnape added.

“There has been much rhetoric on the scheme and the dangers of causing a housing bubble, but Help to Buy remains a small proportion of total sales in the housing market with only a negligible impact in London.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the scheme would grow even further once the Help to Buy ISA is launched later this year.

“The government’s Help to Buy scheme has now helped nearly 100,000 working people across the UK achieve their aspiration of buying a new or bigger home,” he said.

“And I’m looking forward to these numbers growing even more with the launch of the new Help to Buy ISA this autumn, which will ensure that first time buyers saving for a deposit get an additional boost from the government.


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