Help to Buy generates £1.38bn for taxpayers – HBF

Help to Buy has delivered a £1.38 billion return on investment for the Exchequer from fully repaid loans and interest payments to date, with the equity loan initiative currently generating more than £1 million a day in returns, according to research from the Home Builders Federation.

Based on government data, HBF’s Payback Time report finds that Help to Buy is likely to generate a positive return on investment of more than £2 billion once the performance of loans and interest income has been accounted for.

The research reveals that across 181,437 fully repaid loans, the government received a 10.3% uplift on the original loan value, amounting to £1.02 billion in positive returns. This is in addition to a further £358 million generated from interest payments.

Introduced in England in 2013, Help to Buy, according to the analysis, has supported 387,195 households into homeownership, including 328,346 first-time buyer households.

The equity loan scheme was launched to tackle a shortage of mortgage finance available after the global financial crisis. It reduced the deposit buyers needed, supporting affordability especially for first time buyers.

The initiative offered shared equity loans of up to 20% (40% in London) on new build …