This April saw the third anniversary of the Help to Buy scheme being launched. During the three years it’s been in existence, thousands of homebuyers have taken advantage of the government initiative and bought their first or next home. To be exact, since April 1 2013, no less than 73,813 housebuyers have used this government introduced initiative in order to obtain a new build property via the very popular equity loan scheme.
Linden Homes revealed the results of its quarterly Help to Buy Barometer to coincide with this anniversary. The second instalment of its review looked at where the scheme has been taken up most in the country as well as seeing how effective the scheme is in general. According to the index published for this quarter, Help to Buy accounts for almost a third of all Linden Homes sales. The most recent results showed 30% of buyers with Linden Homes used the scheme.
The Midlands, for the second successive quarter, has seen the biggest take up of the Help to Buy initiative in regards to sales for the Linden Homes Group. No less than 51% of all sales for that area used Help to Buy.
With the Midlands, in terms of Help to Buy sales compared to overall sales, having the highest percentage, the Western region with 43% and the Eastern region with 42% of Help to Buy sales came a relatively close second and third.
Other figures in the review showed that over the previous quarter, first-time buyers accounted for 68% of Help to Buy sales for Linden Homes. The scheme’s effectiveness at getting people onto as well as up the property ladder was further illustrated elsewhere. As part of the HM Treasury/DCLG report in March 2016 figures showed that the national average of first-time buyers using Help to Buy was an impressive 81%. It was interesting to note that it was actually the South East where first-time buyers were using Help to Buy most as a proportion of overall sales. The majority of those buyers were using the newly-introduced Help to Buy London scheme. Help to Buy London, which is only available for specific London developments, varies slightly from the national Help to Buy scheme. For instance, it allows buyers to receive a government loan of up to 40% of the property price, after putting down a 5% deposit, instead of the 20% loaned elsewhere in the country.
In relation to the figures shown by the second instalment of their quarterly Help to Buy Barometer, the divisional managing director at Linden Homes, Tom Nicholson said: “We wanted to see how Help to Buy was functioning across the company so tracked and monitored it. This also allowed us to also see where it was most popular. It’s really interesting to see trends emerging and it gives confidence that the initiative is still helping so many homebuyers across the country.
“With over 1,800 people purchasing their dream home through Help to Buy, it shows that it’s working right across the whole of our business as well. The effect the new Help to Buy London scheme has had on the South East market is also interesting to see. It’s reinvigorating the surrounding areas of London as well as the capital itself.”