For generations, homeownership in the UK was considered a defining rite of passage. Securing the keys to your first property was more than a financial transaction; it was a fundamental marker of stepping forward in life, offering security, independence, and a stake in the wider community. Today, that aspiration is visibly fracturing.
Over the last two decades, the proportion of owner-occupiers in England has fallen from a peak of 71% in 2002 to 2003, down to 65% in 2022–23.
The cultural expectation that hard work alone leads to homeownership is fading, replaced by a growing disillusionment among young renters who no longer view buying a home as a realistic aspiration. The latest English Housing Survey paints a stark picture of a market drifting out of reach, revealing that 36% of all first-time buyers are now entirely reliant on financial help from family and friends just to fund their deposits.
Crucially, this over-reliance on the “Bank of Mum and Dad” exposes a terrifying structural flaw in our economy: that parental wealth only exists because the previous generation benefited from decades of compounding housing equity. If the current generation remains locked out of homeownership, they will accumulate no such equity. Furthermore, the UK state pension is fundamentally designed around the assumption that retirees will own their homes outright. If a generation of lifetime renters reaches retirement still facing escalating private rents, we are not just looking at a housing crisis today, we are sleepwalking into a catastrophic retirement and pension crisis tomorrow.
Helping people buy their first home must therefore be a foundational priority for any government. But there is a vital distinction between helping an individual get over the deposit hurdle and making homeownership genuinely sustainable.
Government-backed equity loans undeniably offer a practical bridge across that deposit gap. However, the architecture of that support dictates its ultimate impact. If state-backed purchasing power is restricted exclusively to one narrow corner of the market, it creates severe unintended consequences for property pricing, chain fluidity, and transaction stability.
With Chancellor John Healey preparing to deliver the Autumn Budget on October 28, the proposed “Your First Home” scheme deserves rigorous examination from across the legal sector.
The policy is designed to help first-time buyers in England acquire new-build homes with just a 2.5% deposit supported by a 20% government equity loan. While the ambition to unlock homeownership is commendable, our experience of the original Help to Buy era raises an unavoidable question: should state capital be channelled
exclusively into volume developments, or would extending it to existing housing stock deliver a fairer, more functional market?
The evidence suggests we cannot afford to repeat the new-build monopoly.
The lessons of help to buy
Between 2013 and 2023, more than 387,000 properties were purchased using Help to Buy equity loans, supporting approximately 328,000 first-time buyers. The scheme proved that demand-side financial support can move buyers onto the ladder. Yet its long-term market distortions were substantial.
Our analysis of HM Land Registry figures at SAM Conveyancing shows that average new-build prices in England and Wales surged by 70.1% between April 2013 and March 2023, comfortably outstripping the 65.6% rise seen across existing properties. That gap has widened further: by May 2026, new builds commanded an average price of £396,889, compared with £283,194 for existing homes, representing a 40.1% new-build premium.
Pumping billions of pounds of state equity into a supply-constrained new-build sector created a captive market. Rather than competing on price, developers were incentivised to absorb buyers’ enhanced budgets into higher asking prices.
Critically, it also failed to resolve the supply crisis it was purported to fix. Completions averaged just 152,791 homes annually during the Help to Buy decade, never approaching the 223,590 dwellings delivered in 2007 prior to the financial crisis. That supply bottleneck remains acute today: official data reveals that since July 2024, only 250,520 new homes have completed across the country – representing an annual run rate of approximately 143,154, less than half the government’s 300,000 annual target.
Restricting the new scheme to new developments when construction output is running at less than half capacity is a mathematical dead end.
Why secondhand homes must be included
Confining equity loans to new-build estates arbitrarily restricts where first-time buyers can live, forcing many into high-density schemes or locations poorly served by transport and community infrastructure. For some buyers, a brand-new apartment or estate home is ideal. For many others, an established Victorian terrace, a suburban semi, or a traditional flat closer to family or employment is far more practical.
Opening the scheme to eligible secondhand properties would immediately solve two structural problems that conveyancers see daily:
1. It restores fluidity to the broken chain: The UK housing market is not just suffering from a housebuilding deficit; it is suffering from a chain paralysis. Thousands of “second-stepper” households are trapped in starter homes because the first-time buyers below them cannot raise conventional 10% or 15% deposits. When an equity-backed first-time buyer purchases an existing home, that vendor is finally freed to trade up to a larger property, unfreezing chains all the way up the ladder and driving pipeline velocity for legal practices.
2. It eliminates new-build legal friction: Conveyancers know the administrative strain that accompanies new-build plot sales, aggressive 28-day exchange deadlines imposed by developer sales teams before searches are back, off-plan completion dates that drift past mortgage offer expiries, and complex developer lease covenants. Enabling buyers to purchase established freehold homes removes substantial administrative pressure, reduces abortive transaction rates, and shields buyers from instant “drive-off-the-forecourt” depreciation.
Protecting buyers and the public purse
Opening government equity to the secondhand market must not be an unmonitored free-for-all. Robust mechanisms are required to ensure state-backed loans do not simply inflate secondhand asking prices.
The safeguard is straightforward, and the same approach used within the Help to Buy repayment process: every eligible secondhand purchase should be strictly pegged to an independent valuation carried out by an RICS-regulated chartered surveyor.
By tying the government’s 20% equity stake directly to an independent professional valuation rather than an agreed sale price, the Treasury ensures taxpayers’ money is backed by genuine market value. If a vendor insists on an inflated asking price that exceeds the RICS figure, the equity loan would only apply up to the surveyed valuation, immediately disincentivising artificial price spikes.
It is equally important that buyers enter the secondhand market with their eyes open. Older properties involve distinct considerations, from structural maintenance and building surveys to leasehold management packs. The objective is not to declare existing properties superior to new builds, but to provide equitable choice.
Helping people afford a home, not just access debt
The government is entirely right to prioritise deposit affordability. But lowering the barrier to entry while restricting purchasers to an artificially expensive asset class is only half a policy.
Help to Buy proved that state equity can stimulate transactions, but it also proved that restricting support to new developments props up developer balance sheets rather than fixing market liquidity.
By widening “Your First Home” to include existing housing stock, underpinned by independent RICS valuations, Chancellor John Healey has an opportunity to support first-time buyers, unfreeze trapped second-steppers, and restore natural movement across the entire property ladder.
About the author
Andrew Boast FMAAT is the Chief Executive Officer of SAM Conveyancing, a leading national conveyancing panel management and property advisory firm based in Ascot, Berkshire. Bridging the gap between legal efficiency and the consumer experience, he is a specialist in property market analytics and the author of How to Buy a House Without Killing Anyone. Andrew regularly provides industry commentary on housing policy, leasehold reform, and transaction efficiency across England and Wales.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Today’s Conveyancer.
