Latest data shows UK Help to Buy scheme has now helped over 73,000

The majority of sales under the UK government’s Help to Buy equity loan scheme continues to be to first time buyers representing 83% of total sales, the latest figures show.

The data from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) also shows that the average (mean) purchase price was £211,566 in the first 20 months since the scheme was launched.

The top six local authorities in terms of completed sales are Wiltshire with 664, Leeds at 628, Central Bedfordshire at 581, Milton Keynes at 516, Peterborough at 512, and Birmingham at 465.

These figures firmly but to bed concerns that it would benefit people in London and the South East buy higher priced properties and also shows over 73,000 have benefitted.

Figures also show that 30,269 households buying new and existing homes through the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme and 5,518 households were supported into a new build home through the NewBuy scheme.

The Help to Buy equity loan scheme was introduced along with other Help to Buy products to support people who can afford a mortgage, but struggle to save the deposits required by lenders in the wake of the financial crisis.

‘Our long term economic plan has turned this country around from the one we inherited, suffering from a crashed economy and a housing market where builders wouldn’t build, lenders wouldn’t lend and buyers couldn’t buy,’ said Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis.

‘Now numbers of first time buyers are at their highest since 2007, house building continues to climb and planning permissions are at record levels. All these measures combined are helping record numbers of people into a new home, including 73,000 households benefiting from Help to Buy and we will keep striving to get that total even higher,’ he added.