Mortgages Leeds

This week we heard that Lloyds Banking Group cut the amount it is prepared to lend by 70 per cent from £500,000 to £150,000. This appears to be a tough decision on first-time buyers, who make up around 85 per cent of Help to Buy sales, especially in areas where house prices continue to soar making it even harder for first time buyers.

We also heard that the Scottish Government's Help to Buy scheme has run out of money for this financial year - only three months after a new round started.

However given this, the Help to Buy equity loan scheme seems to be more popular than ever, with a 91 per cent rise in completions during June, taking the total number of home purchases supported to 27,167 since the scheme’s inception in March 2013. In June there were 4,357 completions, up from May’s 2,274 completions. In total over the second quarter there were 7,772 completions, up from 6,524 in the previous three months. Virgin also removed its £30,000 minimum income cap on Help to Buy equity products. (Source: FT Adviser)

Although there is some mixed news at the moment regarding the Help to Buy scheme and we have seen a decline in the number of enquiries, we don’t expect this to be the continuing trend. The Help to Buy scheme is still an excellent incentive in our opinion and one in which people should take advantage of whilst it is still around!