The Your First Home scheme replaces Help to Buy, letting first-time buyers put down a 2.5% deposit and take an equity loan of up to 20% of a property's value, but only for new-build homes bought from developers. Help to Buy backed more than 387,000 purchases between April 2013 and March 2023, yet the Institute for Fiscal Studies said it made only a limited difference to affordability. SAM Conveyancing estimates Help to Buy inflated new-build prices by 70.1% and urges extending Your First Home to existing homes to avoid another 'artificial price bubble'. HM Revenue & Customs data show new builds sell at a 40.1% premium, averaging £396,889 versus £283,194 for older homes. The government's aim is to boost demand for new homes so developers build more.
Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.
Original headline: Why does Your First Home scheme only cover new builds ... and should it be extended to older ones too ?
Read the original on dailymail.com ↗
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