The Help To Buy property sales in England are nearing £50 billion since the launch of the scheme in 2013
The Help To Buy property sales in England are nearing £50 Billion since the launch of the scheme in 2013. There were 50,302 residential property purchases using the Help to Buy: Equity loan scheme in England last year.
On an average, there were nearly 1,000 property completions using this scheme per week, representing an increase of 13% on the figures from 2017.
In total, 41,076 of the housing completions made using the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme were from first-time buyers and equates to a 14% increase in the scheme’s uptake from a year earlier.
Since the scheme’s launch in April 2013, 195,219 residential properties have been bought using equity loans up to 30 September 2018.
In total, £10.66 billion has been spent on loans funded by tax payers with the properties totalling £49.89 billion overall.
On average, buyers using the Help to Buy; Equity Loan scheme spent £255,542 per property with an equity loan value of £54,630, despite a contemporary UK property average of £230,776; which could suggest that buyers using this scheme are purchasing more expensive property or making offers in excess of the sale price.
81% (158,013) of completions using the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme were made by first-time buyers highlighting the success of the scheme with this section of the property market.
HM Treasury also released its figures on their Help to Buy: ISA scheme which suggests that the average age of users of this government backed scheme is 28, while the average age of UK home buyer is 30.
In total, 194,379 property completions used this scheme since its launch in 2013. In comparison to the Equity Loan scheme, the average property bought cost £173,353; almost £50,000 cheaper than the UK average and over £20,000 cheaper than the average cost of a home bought by a first-time buyer (£195,404).
Mark Hayward, NAEA chief executive, said there has been increased sales to first-time buyers running at about 26% of sales, with the slowdown in buy-to-let purchases helping the first-time buyers to be in a more competitive position. Help to Buy, though, does not build chains as in effect the buyer is sucked out of the system.
