Over a quarter of a million helped onto housing ladder by UK Government schemes

Over 285,000 home owners, including 240,000 first time buyers, have been supported by the Government’s flagship Help to Buy schemes, the latest figures show.

The figures from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) also show that the Help to Buy Isa has now helped over 960,000 people save towards their own home, and will assist thousands more into home ownership over the next few years.

The average house price across the schemes is £193,826, which is below the average UK house price, and over 90% of completions across the Help to Buy schemes have taken place outside of London.

New housing minister, Alok Sharma, said that the Help to Buy: Equity Loan continues to be hugely successful, supporting thousands of households across the country to take their first step onto the housing ladder.

More than 120,000 completions have now taken place through the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme, which offers buyers up to 20% of a newly built home’s costs so they only need to provide a 5% deposit.

The North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the South West have seen the highest number of property completions using the Help to Buy Isa with a total of 62,528 completions across the UK using the ISA bonus have taken place since it was launched in December 2015.

The London Help to Buy scheme provides an equity loan of up to 40% for buyers in the capital with a 5% deposit. It has helped 3,249 buyers in the capital across 32 boroughs purchase their own property between February 2016 and March 2017.