Help to Buy has created more than 54,000 homeowners in England, housing minister Brandon Lewis announced today.

Figures released today show Help to Buy is helping more and more people onto the property ladder and getting more homes built, with over 39,000 households buying new-built properties through the equity loan and NewBuy options, and 15,000 households buying through the mortgage guarantee.

A further 3,400 new homeowners have been created in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through the Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee.

Lewis says today’s figures demonstrate that Help to Buy is helping “creditworthy, hard-working people who want to buy a home of their own”.

“Over 54,000 new homeowners have now used the schemes as a valuable alternative to the Bank of Mum and Dad, enabling them to buy with a fraction of the deposit they would normally require.”

David Newnes, director of estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, says Help to Buy “has helped keep the blood pumping in the first-time buyer market”.

“The first-time buyer market has proved largely resilient to the wider cooling in the housing market over the last few months. While property price rises have begun to slow and total lending levels have also dipped, first-time buyer demand has kept a steady pace.

“There was a slight drop-off in activity in September, but this had less of an impact than the similar drop-off we saw last year.

“First-time buyers continue to be a key component of the engine powering the housing market recovery. Many worthy borrowers are only just seeing their finances recover after the financial crisis, and are now in a position to buy.”