Government May Extend Help to Buy

According to the Times, the government is talking to the Home Builders Federation about extending the Help to Buy loan scheme beyond its current end date of April 2021.

Home Builder Federation members build around 80% of new homes each year and extending the scheme would support the industry after the Covid-19 lockdown measures are lifted.

The closure of sales offices and construction work is expected to have a big impact on the housing sector and Saville’s estimate the lockdown has delayed the construction of around 200,000 new homes.

248,075 properties have been bought since the launch of the Help to Buy scheme in April 2013 and 81% of the total purchasers were first time buyers.

After the Help to Buy scheme has ended in April.  A new scheme will run for 2 years for first time buyers only and will have regional property price caps.

Comment

Cynics that we are, is this because house prices will be subdued, meaning the government then lends money and gets to benifit from future house prices increases with their equity share given that property prices have been estimated to fall around 13% during the coronavirus pandemic?  A good time to lend and profit from growth?