Help to Buy supports 3,500 North West buyers

Latest figures from the Government show that 3,500 households in the North West have purchased homes through Help to Buy since the programme began, with the region reaching the highest level of mortgage guarantees nationally.

In total 27,861 households have been assisted through Help to Buy. Help to Buy is divided into two schemes, a mortgage guarantee and an equity loan scheme.

The Help to Buy equity loan enables people to buy a newly built home with a deposit of at least 5% of the property price, while the government offers a loan of up to 20%. The rest is covered by a mortgage.

Meanwhile, the mortgage guarantee offers mortgage lenders the option to purchase a guarantee on mortgages where a borrower has a deposit of between 5% and 20%. Because of this support, participating lenders are able to offer more mortgage products to borrowers with small deposits.

In the North West, 1,027 homes have been purchased through mortgage guarantee, and 2,517 through equity loans. The region is the highest in the country for mortgage guarantees, with the South East close behind at 1,011.

The figures show that 74% of the homes bought through Help to Buy are new-build properties. The majority of Help to Buy sales, 85%, are to first-time buyers.

Only 6% of Help to Buy purchases were in London, with the rest spread throughout the regions.

The average price of the houses purchased in the North West was £126,000, below the UK average house price of £252,000.

The Help to Buy equity loan scheme, the part of the scheme for new-build homes, has been extended up to March 2020 with a further £6bn.

Mortgage guarantee data is for October 2013 to end of March 2014. Equity loan data is for April 2013 to end of April 2014.