BBC Unveils the Help to Buy Scheme Impact Across the Country

17 Feb, 2017

Research completed by the BBC has given light on how the Help to Buy scheme has boosted home ownership for first-time buyers in the three years since its launch in April 2013.

What Is Help to Buy?

Help to Buy is a scheme introduced by the government mainly to help first time buyers get onto the property ladder. An example on a £200,000 house would see a buyers deposit be 5% (£10,000), the Government would then put in a 20% (£40,000) loan and the remaining 75% (£150,000) would be put in by a mortgage lender.

How Has This Impacted the Property Market?

The numbers show a healthy 1 in 3 properties outside of London were bought using the Help to Buy scheme, while a mere 1 in 10 were bought in the capital. A total of more than 100,000 across the whole of England.

Loans were used to buy 76,559 homes outside of the London area between April 2013 and April 2016 equating to 30% of total private new build properties. Meanwhile in the London area 4,483 loans were secured, equivalent to 11% of total private new build properties.

What Were the Results in Worthing?

During the period of April 2013 & April 2016 there were 237 Help to Buy loans taken out with the average being £56,731, equalling 4.8 loans per 1,000 homes. This has helped push up the average house price to £266,968.

What Were the Results in Adur?

During the period of April 2013 & April 2016 there were 37 Help to Buy loans taken out with the average being £48,998, equalling 1.3 loans per 1,000 homes. This has helped push up the average house price to £306,528.

What About Across the Whole Country?

A total of £4.6 billion in Help to Buy loans across 100,284 households. The average loan coming in at £46,301 making £229,608 the average purchase price. First time buyers were the biggest winners as 81% make up the demographic.

If you are interested in the Help to Buy scheme don’t hesitate to contact us, we have professional mortgage brokers on hand to explain the whole process.