A helping hand on the property ladder
Scottish Secretary welcomes latest figures on UK Government's help to buy scheme.
Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael today welcomed figures showing that a UK Government scheme has helped nearly 200 families in Scotland purchase new homes. Speaking on the day the UK Government launched a UK-wide TV advert for the Help to Buy Scheme, Mr Carmichael said:
I am pleased that the UK Government’s Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee scheme is helping families in Scotland. Too many people have found themselves frozen out of the market in recent years as a result of the size of the deposit required. In only three months, the Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee scheme has already seen more than 500 applications worth in excess of £50m in Scotland, and helped move around 180 families onto, or up, the housing ladder.
I want to see that continue in 2014, and for Help to Buy to help many more families in Scotland realise their dreams of home ownership.
I am also delighted that the Scottish Government has followed the UK Government’s lead on the equity loan part of Help to Buy and introduced its own Help to Buy Scotland scheme, specifically for the Scottish market. This is a perfect example of one of the key things devolution can offer us – policy ideas and innovation between the countries of the UK family, leading to better outcomes for the people of Scotland.
The Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme offers lenders the option to purchase a government guarantee on mortgages on both new build and existing homes, where a borrower has a deposit of between 5 per cent and 20 per cent.
Since the launch of the mortgage guarantee scheme in October, more than 6,000 people across the UK have put in offers on homes under the scheme totalling close to £1bn (over £900m) of new mortgage lending. Nearly 750 people across the UK have completed their purchases under the scheme.