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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for extending the Help to Buy scheme to properties other than new builds.

The Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme has dual objectives. It provides an affordable route into Home Ownership by enabling customers to purchase a home with a deposit from as little as 5 per cent, at the same time focusing the scheme on newbuild homes ensures the demand it creates drives up new housing supply. The scheme has been extremely successful in supporting both would-be purchasers and boosting supply.

There are no plans to widen the scheme to include non-newbuilds as this would not deliver the same supply benefits. However the Government does have a range of other policies that support people into homeownership within the wider housing market, such as the Help to Buy ISA (no longer open but can be used for purchases until 2029), the Lifetime ISA and Help to Buy Shared Ownership.