A total of 547,187 property completions have now been supported by the Help to Buy scheme since its launch, new Treasury figures have shown.
The data, which covers the seven years between December 2015 and December 2022, revealed that 714,878 bonuses have been paid through the scheme, totalling £860m, with an average bonus value of £1,204.
With the average value of a property bought through the scheme sitting at £177,217, it is significantly lower than an average first-time buyer property price of £245,958, and an average property price of £294,329.
The Help to Buy scheme closed to new entrants in November 2019, and the Treasury stated that the numbers it is seeing have been dropping as the scheme winds down.
Hargreaves Lansdown senior personal finance analyst, Sarah Coles, commented: “The Help to Buy schemes are limping towards their final demise, and the ISA in particular has been increasingly hobbled by the limits on the properties that can be bought using the scheme. The government needs to learn from this experience, and protect the Lifetime ISA from the same fate.
“The Help to Buy ISA has been closed to new entrants for three and a half years – although contributions can be made for another six. But already first-time buyers are hamstrung by the limit on property values which can be bought through the scheme.”
According to the data, the highest number of property completions with the support of the scheme is in the North West, and in Yorkshire and the Humber, with the lowest numbers in the North East, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“Outside London, you can only buy a property worth up to £250,000 with a Help to Buy ISA, and within London you can only spend up to £450,000,” Coles continued. “Neither limit has moved an inch since they were first introduced in December 2015.
“Since then, house prices have risen over 40%, the average first-time-buyer property is bumping up against the £250,000 limit, and the average property price has raced way ahead. It means that people have either had to settle for a cheaper home or forgo their bonus.”
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