Record number of households bought home with Help to Buy

Over £20bn has been lent to help people into homeownership since the start of the Help to Buy scheme, with recent figures showing a record number of people buying a home through the scheme last year.

Over 55,000 households bought their home with the support of Help to Buy in 2020-21, an all-time high for the scheme.

Since the scheme was introduced, 328,506 households have purchased a home through Help to Buy, with the value of properties sold under the scheme exceeding £90bn.

Housing secretary, Robert Jenrick MP, said: ‘Over 55,000 households bought their home with the support of Help to Buy equity loan last year: a record year for the scheme, which is helping young people and first-time buyers feel the sense of pride and achievement that comes with owning your own home.

‘Whether it be Help to Buy, the 95% mortgage guarantee scheme or First Homes – we’re doing everything we can to make home buying an affordable and realistic ambition.’

It was also announced recently that homebuilders across the country can bid for a share of £150m to support the roll-out of the new First Homes scheme, which helps local first-time buyers onto the housing ladder.

Holly Roberts, 27, is one of the people who have benefitted from the scheme over the past year, having recently purchased a property in Poole, Dorset.

She said: ‘It feels really good to have my own home, I just love having my own place and knowing that I did that through my own hard work. I wouldn’t have been able to get on the housing ladder without Help to Buy. That equity loan just helped me bridge the gap between what I could borrow from a mortgage and the sort of prices I was looking at around this area. I would recommend help to buy to other people. I genuinely think it is such a good government scheme.’

In related news, new analysis shows London needs to build 90-100,000 new homes each year to tackle the housing crisis – double the number currently being built according to recent government data.

Photo by James Feaver