The Help to Buy: Equity loan – which allows qualifying borrowers to apply for a 20% equity loan from the government to buy a new build home – saw 62,569 completions totalling almost £2.7bn in the past two and a half years.
However, the amount of completions dropped by 33% between the second and third quarters of this year, falling from 9,122 to 6,105 completions.
The value of the equity loans also decreased significantly, from £419m in Q2 to £286m in Q3.
The mean purchase price was £218,000 – far below the UK average of £286,000.
The Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee – which allows lenders to purchase a guarantee on a borrower’s mortgage – saw a reverse trend.
While the quarter-on-quarter increase in completions was modest – rising from 9,562 to 9,589, the value of the Mortgage Guarantee used rose fairly significantly, from £201m in Q2 to £215m in Q3.
The scheme supports 65,920 mortgages at a total value of £9.7bn, with 79% of applicants purchasing their first home. The mean property value was £155,573.
Both schemes saw a majority of completions from applicants with an annual household income of £30,000 to £40,000.
The Help to Buy: Equity loan will run until 26 November 2021 and the Mortgage Guarantee until 31 December 2016. In Scotland and Wales, the end date for both schemes is set at 31 March 2016.
