Affordable housing

The Help to Buy: ISA has in total helped more than 960,000 people save towards their own home, according to the government.

The statistics also suggest that at least 285,000 completions have taken place using one or more of the Help to Buy schemes, with 90 per cent of them taking place outside of London. More than 240,000 first-time buyers have purchased their first home using the schemes.

The Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme has seen more than 120,000 completions. This scheme offers buyers up to 20 per cent of a newly built home’s costs so they only need a 5 per cent deposit.

Alok Sharma, housing and planning minister said: “As set out in our housing white paper, we’re committed to helping those aspiring homebuyers currently locked out of the market to turn their dreams of home ownership into reality.

“These figures show that Help to Buy: Equity Loan continues to be hugely successful, supporting thousands of households across the country to take their first step onto the housing ladder.”

According to the statistics, the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the South West have seen the most property completions using the Help to Buy: ISA.

In the capital, 3,249 buyers used the London Help to Buy equity loan scheme between February 2016 and March 2017 to buy their own home.

The average house price across the schemes is £193,826, which is below the average UK house price.