Welcome boost for first-time buyers

Market Insight:

• The Budget confirmed a successor to Help to Buy. 'Your First Home', launching in April 2027, will lend buyers 20% of the price of a new-build home, interest-free for five years, against a deposit of just 2.5%.
• The eligibility rules are more generous than expected. Income caps are £140,000 in London and £110,000 outside London.
• Price caps are £650,000 in inner London and £500,000 in outer London; beyond the capital they are tied to the median house price in each local authority.
• To judge how the scheme might shift sentiment and the market, start with its predecessor. Between 2013 and 2023, Help to Buy accounted for around 5% of all mortgage approvals.
• Its weight in the new-build market was far greater: across London, it supported an average of 28% of new-build sales while it ran.
• Not all of this was necessarily new demand. Some 46% of Help to Buy purchasers could not otherwise have bought a home. For the rest, the scheme stretched their budgets, letting them buy more (a bigger or more expensive property).
• The payoff for supply was real. Estimates vary, but a recent evaluation put the boost to housebuilding at around 15%. The cost in higher prices was modest, at roughly 3%, though probably more in some local markets.
• It should be acknowledged that whilst the experience was in the main positive for buyers this wasn't the case for all – in London especially, some buyers were caught by the cladding crisis, which left them struggling to sell on and suffering significant higher service charges.
• Nor will demand alone deliver homes. Feasibility remains key for developers being able to increase supply – higher build costs remain a significant hurdle. Source: Dataloft by PriceHubble, gov.uk, MHCLG published report ‘Evaluation of the Help to Buy scheme: evaluation findings report’ September 2026