A total of 323,767 properties have been bought with Help to Buy ISAs since the scheme launched in 2015, new figures published by the Treasury have revealed.

The data also showed that 426,565 bonuses have been paid through the scheme with an average bonus value of £1,000, after the total value of bonuses hit £426.74m at the end of March this year.

On the Help to Buy ISA scheme, the mean value of a purchased property was revealed to be £173,878, compared to an average first-time buyer house price of £194,718 and a national average house price of £231,855.

The Ministry of Housing also published data for the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme, and revealed that in the period since the launch of the scheme – 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2020 – 272,852 properties were bought with an equity loan.

These figures revealed that the total value of equity loans was £16.05bn, with the value of the properties sold under the scheme totalling £73.28bn.

The Help to Buy ISA has now closed to new savers while the equity loan scheme is still to run until 2023.

Responding to the government figures, Hargreaves Lansdown personal finance analyst, Sarah Coles, said: “Help to Buy is on the home straight. The ISA and equity loan schemes have helped hundreds of thousands of people onto the property ladder, but their time is running out.

“Unless you already have a Help to Buy ISA, you’re too late to start one. And while the equity loan scheme has a few more years to run, the costs and complexities involved mean it may not be a good idea to grab one while you can.

“It means future homebuyers may need to look elsewhere for help getting onto the property ladder – and the Lifetime ISA can be a useful alternative. If you are saving for your first home, are aged 18 to 39, have at least a year until you want to buy, you could get up to £1,000 a year of free money from the Government to put towards your property deposit.”

Share Story: