Virgin Money yesterday confirmed that it was planning to join the second stage of the Help to Buy scheme at the start of 2014 and Mortgage Solutions can reveal the lender will also participate in the first half of the scheme from November.
The lender will join high street brands such as Barclays, Halifax, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander in the first half of the scheme. Smaller building societies such as Chorley, Leeds and Newbury also participate.
Since the Help to Buy equity loan scheme was launched in April, there have been 15,410 reservations for new build homes, latest government figures show.
Newly-appointed housing minister Kris Hopkins said the equity loan scheme had given the market a kickstart by driving up the rate of housebuilding and helping families buy a home.
Hopkins said: “With over 15,000 reservations for new build homes in six months, it’s clear the first part of our Help to Buy scheme, the equity loan, has captured the imagination of the public and is boosting the supply of new homes across the country.
“Our policies on housing are working: housebuilding is growing at its fastest rate for 10 years, and the tough decisions we’ve taken to tackle the deficit have kept interest rates low and are now delivering real help to hardworking people.
“I’m delighted we’ve launched the second part of Help to Buy, the mortgage guarantee, which will strengthen the package of measures that have already done so much to restore confidence in the housing market.”
According to figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government, housing supply is now at its highest since the end of the housing boom in 2008, with 334,000 new homes built over the last three years.
