While the Help to Buy application deadline has passed, demand for home buying scheme remains high, Wayhome reveals, with a third of all properties offering the additional help already snapped up by buyers.
The UK Government’s Help to Buy scheme has provided equity loans since 2013 to enable would-be homebuyers to get their first foot on the property ladder.
The scheme closed to new applications on 31 October last year and the deadline for final completion is on 31 March this year.
However, demand for buying schemes is still strong with 33% of those listed for sale with the benefit of a buying scheme across Britain having already been brought.
Demand is at its highest in the West Midlands where 48% of all homes for sale with a buying scheme boost have already gone under offer or sold subject to contract, followed by the East of England (44%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (43%).
Looking at cities, Bristol tops the table, where 70% of all homes offering the aid of a buying scheme have already been pounced upon by the city’s homebuyers, with Cardiff (65%) and Sheffield (50%) also within the top three.
While demand is strong, Wayhome says there remains a significant issue when it comes to the supply of stock offering the additional help of a buying scheme.
Across Britain, the 13,066 homes currently offering this additional help to homebuyers account for just 2.2% of total homes listed for sale.
These stock levels fall as low as 0.3% in Scotland and in the city of Glasgow alone, it’s way down at 0.1%.
Stock is also drastically low in Wales (0.8%), the North East (1.4%), and Yorkshire and Humber (1.5%).
In fact, there are only two regions that can boast above-average stock levels. These are the South East (3.9%) and London (2.7%).
Wayhome co-founder and chief executive Nigel Purves comments: “The Help to Buy scheme has had its fair share of criticism due to the fact that it’s fuelled demand while the government has done very little in terms of building more homes.”
“This imbalance has contributed to house prices climbing ever higher, however, there’s no denying that the scheme has helped a huge number of buyers realise their dreams of homeownership. Now that it is no longer available, many more are left struggling to overcome the initial financial obstacles associated with buying a home.”
“The private sector is doing its best to fill the void left by Help to Buy, but as our research shows, we simply can’t plug the gap alone. At the same time, the vast majority of buying schemes are also reliant on the delivery of new-build properties reaching the market, which further reduces the options available to homebuyers.”
“As a result, there are very few schemes providing a foot up across the new-build and existing markets, with our Gradual Homeownership being one of them.”
“It will be interesting to see if the issue is addressed in this week’s spring statement but, as it stands, the plight of the nation’s homebuyers continues and countless people are unable to make the jump from renting to owning.”
