Linden Homes has released the fourth of its regular reports on Help to Buy – detailing how the Government led equity loan scheme is being taken up across the UK at the housebuilders’ developments.
While first time buyers still dominate the statistics, it seems that, with the average price of the Help to Buy home on the rise, the scheme may now be attracting more existing home owners too.
The data from Linden Homes’ Help to Buy Barometer, which tracks all Help to Buy activity across its developments throughout the country shows the average percentage of regional Help to Buy purchases has substantially increased.
In the last quarter, from July to September 2016, the average percentage of homes bought using the Government led scheme has increased to 41%. (The first quarter of this year saw an average of 28.3%).
The scheme applies to homes priced up to the value of £600,000: Interestingly the average price of homes purchased with the scheme has also increased from £249,855 last quarter to £328,249 in the period July to September.
Once again, the data reveals the scheme is having a significant impact when it comes to helping people onto the property ladder and it is first time buyers who are consistently taking advantage of Help to Buy. 70% of Linden Homes’ customers who used Help to buy in the last quarter were first time buyers.
In the South East region which covers London and Greater London, all of the Help to Buy customers were first time buyers and in the Chiltern division, 87% were first time buyers.
The most popular Help to Buy developments were Edge in Harlow, Essex, which accounted for 70% of the Eastern region’s total Help to Buy sales and Nash Mills Wharf in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire which accounted for 54% of Linden Homes Chiltern’s total Help to Buy transactions.
Chris Harris, regional managing director at Linden Homes Western commented on the latest Help to Buy barometer results:
“Our regular study into Help to Buy shows there is consistent enthusiasm for this scheme – particularly amongst first time buyers. It also shows where the scheme is really having an impact – and the pattern is quite consistent across the year so far.
“Last quarter the average house price for Help to Buy dropped – reflecting the trend for first time buyers using the scheme. Interestingly this quarter shows the average Help to Buy house price has gone up. This may well reflect a new trend of existing home owners choosing Help to Buy to assist them as they move up the ladder and using the Government funds to do so.”
To see how much you can afford with the scheme check out Linden Homes’ Help to Buy calculator at lindenhomes.co.uk/helptobuy where you can also view applicable developments near you.
Help to Buy is available across a number of Linden Homes developments including Kempsey Mead in Kempsey, Greyfriars Quarter in Gloucester, Regents Place in Kingsway, Cleeve View in Bishop’s Cleeve, Linden Park and Charlton Hayes in Bristol, Longhedge Village in Salisbury, Heritage Park in Radstock and selected homes at Ensleigh in Bath.
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Media can contact Emma Mackay on 077383 12960 for more information, images and interviews with Linden Homes.
