Last updated – 21 October 2019

Introduction to the topic

The government introduced the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme to address a fall in property sales following the financial crash of 2008 and the consequent tightening of regulations by the regulatory authorities over the availability of high loan-to-value and high loan-to-income mortgages. The scheme has two principal aims: to help prospective homeowners obtain mortgages and buy new-build properties; and, through the increased demand for new-build properties, to increase the rate of house building in England.

As at December 2018, the scheme had supported around 211,000 property purchases through loans totalling £11.7 billion. The Department expects to have loaned around £22 billion in cash terms by the time the current scheme comes to an end in March 2021. In October 2018, the government announced that a new scheme would run from April 2021 to March 2023. The government will make available an additional £7.2 billion, which it forecasts will support a further 110,000 households. Homes England expect to have loaned around £29 billion in total in cash terms by March 2023, supporting 462,000 property purchases

The NAO most recently reported on the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme in June 2019.

Instructions

All the graphics are interactive.

  • Hovering over areas on the maps gives you more detailed information on that local authority or region.
  • If you click on an area on the map, detailed information for that local authority will be displayed on the other charts, alongside a comparison with its region and the national information. Click the area again to deselect and return to the national view
  • Use the search function on the map to select and zoom to an area. Hold shift while moving the cursor to reposition the map. Press the ‘home’ icon to reset the map
  • If an error message displays, please refresh the page to reload.

Visualisation:

The interactive visualisations below provide information on: the proportion of new-build sales supported by the scheme; financial profile of purchases; and the characteristics of properties purchased. These visualisations are a snapshot in time, representing January 2013 to December 2018. The visualisations include data that is featured in our report, as well as published data from MHCLG. If you wish to explore this further, please visit: Help to Buy equity loan statistics

If you’re having trouble viewing the visualisation, contact us.

Dashboard 1: Help to Buy Sales

This dashboard shows two measures related to Help to Buy sales: proportion of total new-build sales supported by the scheme, and the proportion of Help to Buy sales by first-time buyers.

The map shows the selected measure for the period 2013-2018 for each local authority. Selecting an authority will display its data on the line and bar charts

Notes

1.     We have included new-build sales data for the whole of 2013. This results in a slight under-representation of the Help to Buy proportion in this year, as the scheme began in April 2013.

2.     The ‘Help to Buy sales as a proportion of total new-build sales’ measure includes five instances where the number of Help to Buy sales exceeds the number of new-build sales. This corresponds to the data values in the source data, and a result of revisions to Help to Buy data, and Land Registry data only capturing data on sites over six houses. For presentation purposes these are displayed as 100%.

Sources: Help to Buy equity loan statistics  from Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, and Residential property sales for administrative geographies (newly built dwellings): HPSSA dataset 7 from Office for National Statistics

Dashboard 2: Financial profile of purchases

This dashboard shows four measures related to the purchase cost of Help to Buy properties. These are the average: purchase price, deposit and equity loan of properties purchased with support from the scheme, and the average income of buyers supported by the scheme.

The map shows the data for each local authority for the selected measure for the year selected. Selecting an authority will display its data on the line and bar charts.

Notes

1.     Where data relates to less than 10 help to buy sales it has been suppressed to protect personal data.

Source: Homes England Data (not available online)

Dashboard 3: Property Characteristics

This dashboard shows three measures related to the types of properties bought using the Help to Buy scheme. These are: the proportion of houses (compared with flats) supported by the scheme, and the proportion of leasehold flats and houses supported by the scheme.

The map shows the data for each local authority for the selected measure for the period 2013-2018. Selecting a local authority will display its data on the bar chart and the table

Source: Help to Buy equity loan statistics  from Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government

Dashboard 4: Location Characteristics

This dashboard shows two measures that provide context to the housing in each area. These are affordability (the ratio of median house price to median earnings), and the number of new build sales per 1,000 dwellings.

The map shows the data for each local authority for the selected measure for the year selected. Selecting an authority will display its data on the line and bar charts.

Sources: House price to workplace-based earnings ratio, Live tables on dwelling stock (including vacant)’ from Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Residential property sales for administrative geographies (newly built dwellings): HPSSA dataset 7 from Office for National Statistics

More information

Why has the NAO published this data?

This data visualisation has been prepared under Section 6 of the National Audit Act 1983 for presentation to the House of Commons in accordance with Section 9 of the Act

How can I get an accessible version of this visualisation?

Phone the NAO Enquiries point +44 (0)20 7798 7264.

Alternatively, you can email general enquiries to enquiries@nao.org.uk or use our online contact form.

My question is not answered here, where can I get more information?

Phone the NAO Enquiries point +44 (0)20 7798 7264.

Alternatively, you can email general enquiries to enquiries@nao.org.uk or use our online contact form.