How widely used is Help to Buy?

Since the government launched its Help to Buy scheme - which aims to get first-time buyers onto the property ladder by either lending money directly to them or guaranteeing a loan through a mortgage provider - there has been a great deal of interest in what impact, if any, it would have on house prices.

Some have warned that the scheme risks creating a housing bubble, pushing house prices out of reach of those buyers it is supposed to help. However commentators on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning questioned this, arguing that Help to Buy was "not as important [in recent house price rises] as perhaps the media is playing it up."

Mark Rennison, finance director at mortgage lender Nationwide, seems to agree, as he was quoted in the Telegraph as saying that it was "implausible" that Help to Buy was responsible for rising house prices when "It accounts for only 3-4% of housing transactions, in London it's 2% or less."

New figures released today on Help to Buy take-up suggest that this figure is about right, although it's difficult to say with any certainty.

In the first 13 months of the schemes operation (March 2013 to April 2014), 20,548 loans have been completed in England under the Help to Buy scheme. Meanwhile, a further 5,890 mortgages were guaranteed by the Treasury in England between October 2013 and March 2014 (with another 1,423 guaranteed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

By comparison, there have been over 1 million completed residential housing transactions in England between March 2013 and April 2014, with around half of these sales completing in the October 2013 to March 2014 period. This would suggest that Help to Buy's equity loan scheme has been used in around 1.9% of transactions since it became operational, with the mortgage guarantee scheme being used in around 1.2% of transactions during its lifetime.