Help-to-Buy Helped Lots of Buyers, But Did It Push Up Prices?

A government review says the Help-to-Buy scheme was "very high value for money," creating about £25bn in value for the UK in the last financial year. The Guardian The result was published on 15 September 2026.

More than 387,000 people bought a home with the scheme. More than 328,000 of them were buying for the first time. Nearly half said they could not have bought without it.

The scheme came in two parts. The first part, announced in 2013, gave buyers government loans to lower the deposit they needed. Think of a deposit as the entry ticket for buying a home. The second part, launched in 2021, promised banks the government would cover some losses on mortgages with small deposits. Both parts were for homes worth up to £600,000. By 2014-15, the schemes helped with about one in five first-time buyer purchases. The Guardian

The review did not look at what happened to house prices. A government spokesperson said there are no current plans for a new Help-to-Buy scheme.

The review comes with other housing promises. Keir Starmer promised 1.5 million new homes during this parliament. Ministers promised £39bn for new social and affordable homes.

The broader context here is what was counted and what was not. The £25bn number is about help for families in one year. The "nearly half" number is what buyers said about themselves. Neither tells us if the scheme pushed house prices up.

In my view, the message from the government is wait, not restart. Even with a good review, no new scheme is planned. The focus is on building new homes and on social housing with the £39bn promise. What happens next will depend on whether those 1.5 million homes get built, whether first-time buyers can still save deposits and get mortgages, and whether a future review looks at prices.