Nearly 100,000 have benefitted from Help to Buy
Nearly 100,000 people have now been helped onto or up the property ladder by the government's flagship Help to Buy schemes, figures show.
Some 99,601 people have bought a home under Help to Buy, which enables people to buy a home with a fraction of the deposit they would normally require, according to Treasury figures.
The total is made up of people using the equity loan and mortgage guarantee schemes launched in 2013, as well as the Help to Buy: NewBuy scheme, which offers 95% mortgages to people buying a new-build home. The equity loan scheme and NewBuy scheme figures are for England only, while the mortgage guarantee scheme figures cover the whole of the UK.
The Treasury also confirmed that it is providing the Homes and Communities Agency with the 2016/17 allocation of the £6 billion committed to extend Help to Buy until at least 2020, which it said will give developers certainty so that they can plan for future Help to Buy housing schemes.
Help to Buy has in the past been accused of helping to pump up house prices. But the Treasury said that the average price of a home being bought under the Help to Buy equity loan and mortgage guarantee schemes is £184,000, which is significantly below the average house price across the country of £273,000.
Some 80% of people using Help to Buy have been first-time buyers, it said.
The Treasury said that on a regional basis, the highest number of homes that have been through the mortgage guarantee scheme are situated in the North West of England. Meanwhile, the equity loan scheme has been particularly popular in the South East region.
The figures also show that Wales accounts for 5% of Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee lending while Scotland accounts for 11% and Northern Ireland accounts for 2%. London also accounts for 5% of mortgage guarantee lending while the North West of England accounts for the biggest share, at 14%.
Other regions accounting for particularly large shares of mortgage guarantee lending are the South East, which accounts for 13%, East Anglia, which accounts for 10% and Yorkshire and Humberside, the East Midlands and the West Midlands, which account for 9% each. The South West of England accounts for 8% of lending under the mortgage guarantee.
Chancellor George Osborne said: "The government's Help to Buy scheme has now helped nearly 100,000 working people across the UK achieve their aspiration of buying a new or bigger home...
"Key to our long term plan is providing economic security for working people, at every stage in life.
The security of owning your own home is a big part of this, which is where Help to Buy comes in. It's also boosting the economy more widely by driving an increase in house building in Britain, ensuring long-term housing supply and creating jobs.
"That's why I committed £6 billion to extend Help to Buy to at least 2020, giving developers certainty so they can plan for future Help to Buy housing schemes and continue to boost housing supply. Today I've confirmed the first annual allocation, of nearly £1.5 billion, providing funding for Help to Buy equity loan for 2016/17."
First-time buyers were promised further help in the March Budget. Under a new Help to Buy Isa scheme, to be launched this autumn through banks and building societies, the Government will boost first-time buyers' savings for a deposit on a home by £50 for every £200 they save, up to a maximum bonus of £3,000.
It is estimated that around 285,000 first-time buyers will use the new Help to Buy Isa scheme a year.
Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation said: "Help to Buy equity loan has stimulated demand for new homes and led to a sharp rise in private house building.
"Extending the scheme to 2020 provides certainty of demand that allows home builders to recruit the people and invest in the land and supply chains required to support further sustained increases."
More on AOL Money:
Help to Buy scheme explained: can you still take part?
Budget 2015: Help-to-Buy ISA explained
'Dubious' Help to Buy ISAs will drive up house prices
