Help to buy hits one million first time buyers

What is help to buy?

A few years ago, the government introduced a new scheme aimed to help new buyers in the UK onto the property ladder. Since then, the initiative has outperformed initial expectations and, let’s face it, you’d have to have been living under a rock not to have heard about it.

What are the benefits of help to buy?

There are several different ways that the Help to Buy scheme has boosted the number of first time buyers; this can be through specific housing developments offering affordable homes and can often be purchased with smaller deposits (as little as 5%), or by using an ISA which rewards you for stashing your cash away into a savings account – if that isn’t an initiative to save a deposit, we don’t know what is!

For those of you who love numbers, here’s some figures to show just how much of an impact Help to Buy has had*:

·         A total of 259,000 completions have taken place using the Help to Buy schemes, mostly to first-time buyers

·         And more than 868,000 have opened a Help to Buy ISA, making the total of people using Help To Buy over 1 million!

·         Over 215,000 of first time buyers are on the property ladder thanks to Help to Buy

·         Help to Buy has provided a more affordable option as the average house price across all schemes is £192,854, significantly lower than the national average of £220,000.

*information from gov.uk.

With the UK’s current shortage of housing, it may have initially been difficult for first time buyers to get on the ladder, but the likes of the ISA, which sees the government gift you £50 for every £200 you save, makes building a deposit that little bit easier. What’s not to love?

This is great news for first time buyers as the scheme has made it more accessible for so many young people to get on the ladder, and we couldn’t be happier about that. More and more we’re seeing excited faces come to our door looking to find their first ever home – and we love nothing more than helping them fund their dream property. It’s just what we do.

If you’re a first-time buyer looking for a new home, or want to find out more about how Help to Buy can benefit you, we’re here to help. We have properties available to suit all types of budgets and have even come up with a handy guide to help you through your first ever purchase process. Or if you’d like to speak to a member of our team, simply call one of our branches via the contact page here.