Help to Buy completions down 11% in Q3 2022: Govt Mortgage Strategy

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There were 6,531 properties purchased with the government’s Help to Buy equity loan scheme between 1 April and 30 September 2022.

This totalled £561m in equity loans and supported the purchase of £2,142m worth of property.

The total number of completions in the third quarter of 2022 was down by 11% compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

Completions were down in Q3 last year in all regions except London (46%) and the East of England (6%) when compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

Completions in the North East were down by the greatest amount, reducing by 45% when compared to the same period the year prior.

The decrease in the South West was comparably the least with completions decreasing by 4% in Q3 2022 compared to the same quarter in 2021.

Data shows that the introduction of price caps in the current Help to Buy scheme has led to a reduction in the mean purchase price of properties using the scheme in Q3 2022 compared to Q1 2021, the last full quarter of the previous scheme.

This was the case for all regions except London, where the mean property purchase price increased by 6%.

The largest decrease was in the North East where the mean property purchase price fell by 31% in 2022 Q3 compared to Q1 2021.

The median household income of applicants using the scheme is also lower in Q3 last year compared to Q1 2021.

This was the case in all regions except London, where the median household income increased by 12%.

The largest decrease was in the North West where the median household income fell by 23% in Q3 2022 when compared to the first quarter of 2021.

Since the scheme started on 1 April 2013 the total value of equity loans is £23.7bn while the value of the properties sold under the scheme totals £105.4bn.

The government also announced that its Help to Buy Isa scheme had been used to buy 531,507 homes since its launch almost seven years ago to September last year.

The scheme closed to new entrants in November 2019.


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