An evaluation of the government’s Help to Buy scheme, which ran between 2013 and 2023, reveals almost half (46%) of those who took part wouldn’t have been able to purchase a property without the support they received.
The remaining 54% of buyers in the evaluation said they could have bought a home without the scheme but had been able to buy a larger or better quality property. However, the analysis also revealed that Help to Buy had little effect in more expensive areas, and had triggered an increase in prices in those areas.
The evaluation was commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and carried out by Verian, Sheffield Hallam University and Alma Economics, to identify whether the scheme achieved its aims of increasing both home ownership and housing supply.
Overall, the scheme “had a positive effect on both of these outcomes”, the evaluation found, with around 15% of the new homes built over the decade the scheme was active a direct result of the scheme.
The scheme is estimated to have generated a net value of £25.1 billion in 2024/25 prices over its lifetime, including projected income from equity loan redemptions and the social benefit of the increase in housing supply.
The Help to Buy scheme provided an equity loan to enable recipients to purchase a property, worth up to 20% of the property value (increasing to 40% in London from February 2016).
The first iteration of the scheme was open to all buyers purchasing a new-build property under a national price cap of £600,000. A second iteration restricted access to first-time buyers only and introduced regional price caps.
“Overall, the Help to Buy scheme supported expanded home ownership, particularly in already affordable areas”, the analysis found.
“For some people, it helped them onto the housing ladder sooner or enabled them to buy when they might not otherwise have been able to afford to do so. For others, it supported people to skip a rung on the housing ladder and buy a larger or more expensive home. On this basis, the Help to Buy scheme delivered its core aim of supporting home ownership.”
However, the evaluation warns that any future scheme must consider the ongoing affordability of home ownership and any future scheme must be responsive to the wider economic conditions at that time and not expect the same level of impact.
Evaluation of the Help to Buy scheme: evaluation findings report
