Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for what reason a Help to Buy ISA cannot redeem its discount benefit against existing property, only new build properties; and if he would consider amending that condition in response to the starter home building rate in York.

The Help to Buy ISA can be used to purchase both new build and second hand properties. The Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme, however, is only available on new build homes and has property price caps which set the maximum purchase price in each region. The reason the equity loan is only available on new build homes is that a key objective of the scheme is to increase housing supply. Making the scheme available on older homes would not have the same supply impact. Further, the Government has reviewed the Help to Buy price caps and continue to be satisfied they allow good availability of first-time buyer type properties in each region. Therefore, there are no plans to amend the scheme rules. For customers who are not able to utilise the Help to Buy scheme, the Government has a range of other housing products to support people into homeownership such as First Homes and the mortgage guarantee scheme.