Four-fifths (80%) of completions have been made by first-time buyers while the average Help to Buy house price stands at £184,000, significantly below the national average.
Over half of Help to Buy completions have been for new-build homes with 95% of Help to Buy completions taking place outside of London.
Together with the government’s Help to Buy: NewBuy scheme – which offered 95% mortgages for those buying new-build properties – the number of new homeowners has reached 99,601.
First time buyers will have a further boost from the Help to Buy ISA, which the Chancellor announced in the March Budget. Under this scheme, first time buyers can save up to £200 a month towards their first home and the government will boost their savings by 25% up to a £3,000 bonus.
With almost all Help To Buy completions outside London, the highest number of homes have been through the mortgage guarantee scheme in the North West region.
The equity loan – a scheme for new build properties – is particularly high in the South East region.
Despite claims to the contrary, the government claims Help To Buy isn’t pushing up house prices.
It said the average house price for both parts of the scheme, at £184,000 (£156,000 for the mortgage guarantee and £213,000 for the equity loan scheme), remains significantly below the national average house price of £273,000.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said: “Key to our long-term plan is providing economic security for working people, at every stage in life. The security of owning your own home is a big part of this, which is where Help to Buy comes in. It’s also boosting the economy more widely by driving an increase in house building in Britain, ensuring long-term housing supply and creating jobs.
“That’s why I committed £6bn to extend Help to Buy to at least 2020, giving developers certainty so they can plan for future Help to Buy housing schemes and continue to boost housing supply. Today I’ve confirmed the first annual allocation of nearly £1.5 billion, providing funding for Help to Buy equity loan for 2016/17.”
Charles Haresnape, managing director of mortgages and commercial lending at Aldermore, said the figures show the scheme is helping those consumers who most need help to get on the housing ladder.
“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 North West and the East, with over half of all mortgage completions through the scheme on properties worth £150,000 or less.”
Haresnape said the data also showed that mortgage completions through the scheme across Scotland and Wales were proportionally higher that the UK as a whole which showed the balancing effect the programme has had in helping those who need it most.
“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,” he added.
