The government have been accused of “geographical inequality” following the publication of the price caps for the Your First Home scheme.
Comparisons of the maximum eligible property prices with average house prices within the geographies served by the scheme reveal significant differences depending on location.
It has also been suggested fewer than a third of the new homes sold in England would qualify for the scheme.
The analysis, completed by SAM Conveyancing and Dutton Gregory Solicitors, shows 30% of new builds sold in England in the past two years would have qualified. In 264 of the 285 local authorities analysed, the cap is set below the price of a typical new build, which means fewer than half of new homes in the area come in under it, and in 97 of them fewer than a quarter qualify.
According to Andrew Boast, CEO of SAM Conveyancing, in Oxford none of the 66 new homes sold to buyers in the city over the last two years coming in under its £415,000 cap The typical new build in Oxford sells for £777,867, almost double the limit. Worthing is next, where only one of the 90 new builds sold would have qualified under a £300,000 cap, compared to a typical new-build price of £409,472. Neighbouring Adur has a cap of £420,000, and nearly a third of its new builds qualify.
| Rank | Local authority | Region | Price cap | Share of new builds that qualify | Qualifying new builds sold (Oct 2023 to Sep 2025) | Typical new build |
| 1 | Oxford | South East | £415,000 | 0% | 0 of 66 | £777,867 |
| 2 | Worthing | South East | £300,000 | 1.1% | 1 of 90 | £409,472 |
| 3 | Blackpool | North West | £235,000 | 2.4% | 1 of 41 | £305,621 |
| 4 | Lancaster | North West | £285,000 | 3.1% | 4 of 131 | £462,231 |
| 5 | Islington | London | £650,000 | 3.6% | 11 of 304 | £1,144,863 |
| 6 | Westminster | London | £650,000 | 3.8% | 11 of 290 | £2,985,610 |
| 7 | Hammersmith and Fulham | London | £650,000 | 5.3% | 36 of 677 | £1,244,511 |
| 8 | Kensington and Chelsea | London | £650,000 | 5.6% | 7 of 124 | £1,904,642 |
| 9 | Oldham | North West | £300,000 | 6.2% | 13 of 210 | £404,326 |
| 10 | Burnley | North West | £230,000 | 7.6% | 15 of 198 | £318,312 |
Source: SAM Conveyancing analysis of HM Land Registry, ONS and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data
Commenting on the research, Andrew Boast, CEO of SAM Conveyancing, said: “Limiting Your First Home to new builds was always going to restrict where first-time buyers could use it, and the price caps show just how tight that restriction is. Fewer than a third of the new homes sold in England come in under them, so in much of the country buyers will be choosing from a small slice of an already small market.
“We saw with Help to Buy what happens when support is funnelled into new builds alone: developers built the extra buying power straight into their asking prices. Opening the scheme to existing homes, with the equity loan based on an independent valuation instead of the agreed price, would give first-time buyers far more choice and help keep prices in check.”
For Paul Sams, managing partner at Dutton Gregory, there is a clear north/south divide to the caps.
The areas with the greatest percentage headroom include Liverpool where average house prices are £188,427 and the cap is set at £235,000; 24.7% above average, Manchester and Sunderland.
In Newcastle the cap is set at £265,000, some 25.4% above average house prices (£211,255).
On the other side average house prices in Woking are £437,628, 21.2% below the cap at £345,000. In New Forest the cap (£330,000) is 14.2% below average prices (£384,564).
“I am not suggesting the Government has deliberately drawn political boundaries around its housing policy” said Sams, “but these area are all traditional Labour voting heartlands. The scheme also has generous headroom in Portsmouth, which Labour won in 2024, although it is not a traditional Labour stronghold.”
“Meanwhile, several expensive southern markets have caps below their local average. I do think the geographical inequality deserves an explanation” he concluded.
He adds there is also a supply problem with the scheme.
“The Government wants to build 1.5 million new homes. Yet developers participating in this scheme face a progressive contribution of 1%, 3% and then 4% of the sale price as their scheme sales increase.
“At £300,000 per property, a developer selling 500 homes through the scheme would contribute £4.65 million.
“We are asking housebuilders to invest, take risks, navigate planning, deal with infrastructure costs and deliver the homes this country desperately needs, and then charging them for participating in a scheme designed to stimulate demand.
“This one needs a rethink” he concludes adding more homes and help for first time buyers is needed, but the contributions add “another financial disincentive in front of the people expected to build them.”
