First-time buyers aware of Help to Buy but don’t know how it works

More than half of first-time buyers are aware of the Help to Buy scheme but many don’t really understand it, new research shows.

A YouGov poll of 1,019 recent and current first-time buyers asked people to rank how well they understood the government-run scheme on a scale of one to seven, with one meaning “I have no idea” and seven meaning “I understand completely”.

The equity element of the scheme scored 3.7 among those who bought their first property in the past two years and 3.8 among those currently looking to get on the property ladder. The mortgage guarantee part of the scheme scored 3.8 among both groups.

YouGov research manager Tom Rees said the government had trumpeted Help to Buy as a way of helping people onto the property ladder.

“However, while many people looking to purchase their first home know about the scheme, they have lower levels of understanding about how it works,” he said.

The poll also showed first-time buyers were split over whether the scheme was a good thing, Rees said.

While more than a third thought it made home ownership more affordable, almost a third of people thought the scheme was helping inflate a housing bubble.