November, 2017
In a recent announcement from the Government, Prime Minister Theresa May has stated that the government aims to give the Help to Buy Scheme a boost by injecting a further £10bn to help first-time buyers.
The Help to Buy scheme was put in place to give potential first-time buyers a leg up onto the property ladder, by allowing people with only 5% of a deposit to buy a home. Since its introduction, Help to Buy has assisted with over 130,000 purchases.
With recent figures revealing that home ownership among the current up and coming generation has fallen significantly, dropping from 46% to 20% over the last 20 years, Theresa May has pledged to help fix the housing market by providing £10bn of funding and potentially help 135,000 more buyers into their first home by 2021.
In addition to the £10bn boost, the government also announced that they will be providing £2bn to councils, allowing them to build more affordable housing and a further £2.5m would be allocated to help the completion of over 150,000 new homes throughout the country.
As expected with any move from the government, there are both believers and doubters in this plan to inject more cash into the scheme. Some property experts believe that giving buyers a leg up doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. This opinion is shared by Sam Bowman, executive director of the Adam Smith Institute: “…adding more demand without improving the supply of houses is just going to raise house prices and make homes more unaffordable for people who don't qualify for the Help to Buy subsidy.”
Others believe that this is a move in the right direction for the property market. Commercial Director at Aldermore, Charles McDowell, revealed that the latest research from their organisation showed that it would take almost a third of the country five or more years to save up enough for a home.
McDowell commented, "It is a particularly difficult time for first-time buyers due to demand significantly outmatching the supply of homes. We believe more needs to be done to increase house building, so it is promising to see that the Government has assured developers that land will be available for construction."
