Havering Is London’s Help to Buy Hotspot

Interactive Map reveals Havering is London’s #1 Help to Buy Hotspot with 242 Mortgage Completions

Source: http://www.totallymoney.com/help-to-buy-map/

Two years after George Osborne launched of Help to Buy in April 2013, a brand new interactive map from TotallyMoney.com, using housing market data from the HM Treasury, reveals that that Havering is London’s most active Help to Buy hub recording 242 mortgage completions in the borough.

The map highlights all mortgage completions across the UK that were as a result of either the Help to Buy 1 (Equity Loan) or Help to Buy 2 (Mortgage Guarantee) scheme, revealing 1,261 ‘black spots’, where no Help to Buy properties are available or where the scheme simply hasn’t been taken up.

Created to provide a closer look at Help to Buy two years after its launch, the new resource is a powerful tool for first-time buyers looking to narrow down their search by identifying key areas with Help to Buy eligible properties, both in London and across the country. It also provides valuable insight into the success and uptake of the scheme across England over the past 24 months. In London, crucial areas included:

• Havering: 375 Completions
• Croydon: 242 Completions
• Bromley: 222 Completions

Havering may be London’s Help to Buy hotspot, but its completion figures make the area the 33^st most active Help to Buy location, pointing to a relative dearth of eligible Help to Buy properties in the Greater London area.

4 boroughs in London have had 0 completions despite at least 1,047 homes being technically eligible. These are Camden. Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.

With house prices notoriously steep in the capital, property ownership remains a distant dream for many young Londoners, even with help from Help to Buy.

Elsewhere in the country, the scheme is enjoying more success. Key findings outside of London reveal:

• Mortgages on 52,691 Homes across England (as of February 28^th, 2015) have completed as a result of Help to Buy so far.
• 60% of England’s Postcode Districts e.g. NW1 (1,261 out of 2,117 Total) have yet to see any Help to Buy Mortgage Completions
• Leicester is England’s number one Help to Buy hotspot, with 892 completions.
• MK42, in Bedford, is England’s top Help to Buy postcode with 309 completions.
• Over 400,000 UK homes are currently eligible for Help to Buy

Although created to mark the two-year anniversary of Help to Buy, the map uses data from both Help to Buy 1 and Help to Buy 2, recorded since the schemes’ inception. While Help to Buy 1 offers buyers equity loans, the second phase of the scheme provides a Government guarantee, which makes accessing a mortgage easier for buyers with smaller deposits. Here’s how the two schemes work:

• Help to Buy 1 – Equity Loans
  This scheme focuses on first time buyers and new builds, offering a 5-year interest-free Government loan of up to 20% of the property value. Following the 5-year interest-free period, interest is charged at 1.75%, with annual rises of 1% above inflation. Participants need a minimum 5% deposit and must cover the remaining 75% of the cost with a mortgage.
• Help to Buy 2 – Government Guarantees
  The second phase of Help to Buy gives lenders a greater incentive to offer higher loan-to-value mortgages, by allowing mortgage providers the opportunity to buy Government guarantees on the loans they make to both first-time buyers and existing home owners. This means that participants can get on the property ladder with deposits as low as 5%, ranging up to 15%, with a loan-to-value of 80-95% on both older and new-build properties.

TotallyMoney.com’s interactive heatmap gives users a valuable glimpse into how well Help to Buy is working where they live. For aspiring first-time buyers, it’s an especially valuable resource, highlighting key areas where Help to Buy properties are plentiful.

Data Sources

TotallyMoney.com Help to Buy Map
http://www.totallymoney.com/help-to-buy-map/
Postcode Districts
http://www.afd.co.uk/news/datanews.asp
Equity Loan Completions (1 April 13 to 28 February 15 – Latest Data Available) http://opendatacommunities.org/data/housing-market/help-to-buy/num-loans/loan-type-postcode-dis
Mortgage Guarantee Completions (8 October 13 to 30 June 14 – Latest Data Available) http://opendatacommunities.org/data/housing-market/help-to-buy/num-loans/mortagegaurantees/completed-loans-postcode-dis
Median Property Prices & Number of Properties Available under £500,000 (As of 21 Feb 15) – http://www.home.co.uk