The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has released a report urging the government to give support to first-time buyers, as The Payback for Good report highlights the benefits previous schemes gave
The HBF is calling for an urgent replacement to the Help to Buy scheme after it ended in 2022, saying it can only bring benefits.
By the end of 2025, over 55% of the equity loans (213,000 out of 387,000) had been fully repaid, for a total return of £1.24bn, or £218m last year alone.
The original scheme ran from 2013-2022
Throughout this period, the scheme helped more than 300,000 people to purchase a new build home, most of whom were first-time buyers. Furthermore, housing supply doubled in this period, tackling the housing crisis and creating jobs and investment in communities.
Since its withdrawal in 2022, however, the opposite has been true. Housing supply has fallen due to a lack of demand, as many would-be buyers, especially first-time buyers, cannot afford it without better mortgage lending. Rising interest rate fears and fear for the economy in general is also suppressing demand.
This in turn negatively impacts housebuilding rates, and as the supply of private homes suffers, so does the supply of affordable homes.
The HBF report is urging the government to publish the evaluation report for the scheme, which was presented to parliament last year, and to create a replacement equity loan scheme to encourage and stimulate the housing market, and therefore do the same to the housebuilding sector.
The report also states:
- Help to Buy assisted 387,278 households to purchase a new build home between 2013 and 2022, including 328,346 first-time buyer households.
- At the end of March 2026, 213,713 equity loans had been fully repaid, meaning that more than 55% of loan accounts are now closed.
- The closed loan accounts had a value at origination of £11.98bn, but the repayment value was £13.22bn, an increase of £1.24bn against the amount loaned and representing a positive return on the investment of 10.4%.
- Since 2018/19, interest payments have generated £510 million in income for Homes England, including £151.9 million in 2025/26.
- Combining positive returns on the Help to Buy equity loan book and the interest income derived from the scheme to date, the Exchequer has so far benefitted from around £1.74bn of ‘profit’.
- The 32,276 loans paid off during 2025/26 had an origination value of £2.02 billion, but Homes England received £2.24bn, an increase on the original value of £218 million (10.8%).
- ‘Profit’ on equity loans taken together with interest income during the year created £370 million in positive returns for the Exchequer during 2025/26.
“Thwarting attempts to increase the supply of new private and affordable housing”
Neil Jefferson, chief executive at the Home Builders Federation said: “The lack of government support amidst a dearth of affordable mortgage lending is suppressing effective demand for new homes, preventing young people from getting on the housing ladder and thwarting attempts to increase the supply of new private and affordable housing.
“Help to Buy supported a third of a million first-time buyer households into home ownership, helped double housing supply, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, and has delivered a £1.25bn return for taxpayers on repaid equity loans.
“If government wants to see housing supply increase it has to tackle the dual constraints of a lack of viability due to the overly burdensome level of taxation and policy costs levied on development, and the suppressed level of demand that is preventing investment in new sites.
“Publishing the government’s evaluation of Help to Buy, which was completed earlier this year, would help to set the record straight on the performance of Help to Buy and may assist in paving the way for a new support scheme for first-time buyers.”
Emma Ramell, director of external affairs at the Home Builders Federation (HBF), has previously written for PBC Today discussing in further detail why first-time buyer support will be make-or-break for the housebuilding industry. Written just before the previous Autumn Budget, Emma’s words ring true again as the new chancellor has announced the date for the next Autumn Budget.
The post Help to Buy schemes caused housebuilding rate to double, says HBF appeared first on Planning, Building & Construction Today.
