Figures revealed that a total of 17,395 people have bought a home using either the Help to Buy equity loan or mortgage guarantee scheme since launch last year, with equity loans more popular in the south east of England and a mortgage insurance product popular in Scotland.
A statement by the prime minister’s office stated Help to Buy was “overwhelmingly supporting first-time buyers” and followed the chancellor’s pre-Budget pledge to extend the equity loan scheme to 2020.
Some 2572 completions were made under the mortgage guarantee scheme with an average house value of £148,048.
First-time-buyers made up 89 per cent of the 14,823 equity loan customers.
There were 2542 completions in the south east of England, followed by 2060 in the east of England.
Adviser view
John Carter, director of Edinburgh-based Orchard Independent, said: “We’ve had applications for Help to Buy’s equity loan scheme rather than the mortgage guarantee scheme but they seem to be working quite well. We are definitely seeing the market recovering in Edinburgh.”
| Scheme | Mortgage guarantee scheme | Equity loan | Help to Buy total |
| Number of completions | 2,572 | 14,823 | 17,395 |
| Average (mean) value of property | £148,048 | £203,137 | £194,992 |
| Percentage of first time buyers | 82% | 89% | 88% |
| Percentage outside London/ South east | 85% | 76% | 77% |
| Source: HM government |
