The government is planning to extend the Help to Buy Scheme from its current agreed transaction date of December 2020, with the scheme petering out in April 2021.
Ministers are looking at extending the scheme due to the delays on purchases which has been one of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Craig Hall, Head of Broker Relationships & Propositions, Legal & General Mortgage Club, said:
“Today’s news that the government is drawing up plans for an extension to Help to Buy will give developers much more certainty around which planned sites will still be eligible for the current scheme.
“This will be particularly important as many housebuilders will be revising their timetables for completion in light of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.
“An extension will also help to support the growing demand for Help to Buy amongst homebuyers, including buyers with smaller deposits who now face a much more limited choice of high loan-to-value mortgages.”
Tom Brown, Managing Director of real estate at Ingenious, said:
“Despite the extension to the Help to Buy scheme remaining at the proposed stage, there has been speculation across the industry for some time that the original transitional timelines might need to be changed to reflect the closedown in the market through lockdown and the related challenges in building and construction, which have seen delays in the delivery of projects across all sectors.
“We know there has been support for these proposals from Homes England and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, however the final decision rests with HM Treasury and ultimately the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak.
“They face unprecedented challenges across the whole economy and will be engaged in a very delicate game of give and take. We would expect the final announcement to be a short extension to the existing scheme and not anything more structural, however this will of course be subject to change down the line.”
One Response
Still grotesque this developer profits subsidy.
This should be opened out to whole market and not just new builds. Worth checking the correlation between the big 4 builders profits with this pre&post introduction. Also having a look at what it hasn’t done in terms of supply.
This is taxpayer cash being funneled directly to housebuilders balance sheets.
A fair market would share this available to the buyers that need it for the home they desire.