This guide was last updated 31 January 2024
See the key dates below:
As of now there is no successor for the Help to Buy equity scheme, so if you are planning to use the Help to Buy scheme before it ends, speak to one of our experts – Matt Thorn or Scott Lambert.
You can find out more about the help to buy equity loan application closure on the government website or visit our help to buy service page.
The UK government launched the Help to Buy scheme in April 2013, initially to help first-time buyers and home movers get a leg-up on the property ladder.
With soaring property prices and near frozen wages, many were stuck in a cycle of renting which ate away at any chance of saving a 20%+ deposit, leaving them with little to no prospect of buying a home.
Help to Buy offered an interest-free (for five years) equity loan up to 20% of the value of the property, or (since 2016) up to 40% for homes in London.
The Help to Buy scheme is bigger than any previous government housing initiative and has shone a spotlight on affordable housing. More than 211,000 homes have been bought using the scheme, with over a third (37%) of people saying they could not have bought a new property without it, and around 80% saying it allowed them to buy more quickly.
The scheme’s end date is March 2023, by which time Homes England expects to have loaned around £29 billion, supporting the purchase of 462,000 properties. An earlier change will see the scheme exclusively available to first-time buyers from 2021. There are also regional differences in the availability and costs of Help to Buy around the country which are covered in our guide.
View our HTB video with questions answered by one of our advisers, Matthew Thorn below.
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Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
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