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Help to Buy sales fell 17% in March

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
23/07/2020

Transactions for the government’s flagship affordability scheme dropped significantly at the start of lockdown

Help to Buy Equity Loan completions in England were down 17% in March 2020 compared to a year earlier, according to government figures.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that figures for January 2020 and February 2020 – before the start of lockdown measures – were similar to the same months in 2019 (a 0% change and 1% decrease respectively).

But March’s figures were significantly impacted by the restrictions on property purchases.

Home purchases completed under the Help to Buy scheme in England totalled 51,357 in the year to 31 March 2020, down by 2.1% compared with the year to March 2019 (52,444 completions).

Total figures

Since the launch of the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme in April 2013 a total 272,852 properties have been bought with an equity loan.

The value of these equity loans is £16.05bn, with the value of properties sold under the scheme totalling £73.28bn.

Most of the home purchases – 82% – have been made by first-time buyers, and the average purchase price of a property bought under the scheme is £268,553, with buyers using an average equity loan of £58,820.