Member Article

North West tops regions outside London for Help to Buy purchases

According to figures issued by the government, more than 48,000 people nationwide have bought a home through the Help to Buy scheme.

Of those, 94% of scheme completions took place outside London, and 82% were by first-time buyers.

The average price of the houses bought was £187,800 – significantly below the national average for the commercial market.

The North West comes top of the English regions for the total number of equity loan and mortgages with 6180 completions.

In addition, both Manchester and Liverpool are in the top ten local authorities listed by number of Help to Buy completions.

Manchester is listed ninth, with 426 completions, while Liverpool is tenth, with 403 completions.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, said: “Help to Buy is working exactly as we intended. It’s helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder.

“Importantly, Help to Buy is also driving a big increase in house building in Britain, boosting the construction industry and increasing the housing supply”.

Home Builders Federation executive Chairman Stewart Basely said: “This increase in demand is allowing builders to significantly increase the number of new homes being built – homes that the country desperately needs.

“To enable it to increase housing building rates, the industry is recruiting thousands of apprentices and new employees and boosting supply chains and local economies the length and breadth of the country”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .