Help to Buy (Scotland)

Help to Buy (Scotland) is closed to new applicants. The scheme stopped taking applications on 5 February 2021, and no new equity loans are being issued under it¹. If you are searching for it because you want to buy a home in Scotland now, the answer is that this particular route no longer exists, and the support that does exist sits in different schemes.

If you already hold a Help to Buy (Scotland) loan, the closure does not cancel it. The loan continues on its original terms, and it has to be dealt with when you sell the home or remortgage. That is the main reason people still search for this scheme: not to apply, but to work out what they owe and who to contact.

This page sets out what the scheme was, who could use it, what it achieved, and what happens to existing loans. It also covers the schemes that replaced it for first-time buyers in Scotland, and the position in Wales, where a Help to Buy scheme is still running.

Help to Buy (Scotland) is closed to new applicants

The scheme closed to new applicants on 5 February 2021¹. That date is the single most important fact about it. Anyone arriving at this page hoping to apply cannot, and no amount of searching will produce an open application route.

The closure was part of a wider pattern. The Help to Buy equity loan scheme in England closed to new applicants on 31 October 2022¹. The Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme, a separate product that insured lenders rather than lending to buyers, closed to new loans on 31 December 2016⁵. The Help to Buy ISA, a savings product with a government bonus, is also closed to new applicants⁶. All Help to Buy schemes across the other UK countries have now closed¹.

One exception remains. Help to Buy Wales is still accepting applications, with a deadline of 31 March 2027⁷. That scheme is covered in its own section below.

For anyone who held a Help to Buy (Scotland) loan, the closure changed nothing about the debt. The loan was always repayable, and the mechanics of repaying it are set out further down this page.

How the equity loan worked: up to 15% of the price

Help to Buy (Scotland) was an equity loan, not a grant and not a discount. The Scottish Government lent a share of the purchase price, secured against the home, and the buyer repaid that share when the home was sold or the loan was settled.

The Help to Buy (Scotland) Smaller Developer scheme allowed borrowing of up to 15% of a property's value interest-free, on new-build homes only². The buyer owned the property outright, with the whole title registered in their name. The Scottish Government's interest was secured by a standard security, the Scottish equivalent of a mortgage, and it did not own a share of the home⁸.

That structure matters for two reasons. First, because the government held security rather than equity, the buyer did not pay rent on the government's share, which is how shared ownership works. Second, because the loan was a percentage rather than a fixed sum, the amount repayable moved with the value of the home. If the property rose in value, so did the sum owed.

The current Scottish shared equity schemes work differently. Under the Open Market Shared Equity scheme, a buyer contributes between 60% and 90% of the purchase price, with the Scottish Government making up the rest⁹. If a buyer pays for 75% of the home, the Scottish Government helps with 25% of the purchase price¹⁰. When the home is sold, the buyer receives their share percentage of the selling price and the Scottish Government receives the rest: on a 70% share, 70% of the selling price goes to the buyer and 30% to the Scottish Government¹¹. The New Supply Shared Equity scheme splits sale proceeds the same way¹².

Who could use it: the £200,000 price cap and mortgage rules

The scheme was aimed at buyers who could afford a mortgage but not quite the whole purchase price. Two rules defined who that was.

The first was price. The scheme was built around a purchase price of £200,000². That figure shaped which new-build homes were available to scheme buyers, and it is the number most people remember about it.

The second was borrowing. A condition of Help to Buy (Scotland) was that the applicant was expected to take out a mortgage of at least 4.5 times gross household income for a sole purchaser, and 3.5 times gross household income for a joint purchase³. The mortgage amount also had to be no less than that same rule of thumb level³. In practice this meant the scheme was not for cautious borrowers. It was for buyers already stretching to the top of what a lender would offer, with the equity loan closing the remaining gap.

That design has been criticised since. A National Audit Office review of the Help to Buy equity loan in England found that around 60% of users could have bought a home without the scheme's help¹³. The finding is about the English scheme, but it speaks to the same question about who these schemes actually reach.

For buyers in Scotland now, the First Home Fund offers up to £10,000 towards the cost of a property worth up to £300,000¹⁴. That is a grant-style contribution rather than an equity loan, and it is aimed at first-time buyers.

Who used the scheme and what it achieved

Help to Buy (Scotland) helped over 17,000 households purchase a new build home since 2013³. That figure covers the scheme's whole life, from its start to its closure.

For scale, the wider Help to Buy scheme supported over 387,000 property purchases, of which 328,000 were by first-time buyers¹⁵. The Scottish share of that total was a small fraction, reflecting both the smaller housing market and the earlier closure date.

The scheme's effect on the new-build market was significant while it ran. Just over six in ten, 63%, of new build properties purchased through the First Home Fund had a price in excess of £200,000, the price ceiling that applied to Help to Buy (Scotland)¹⁶. That comparison suggests the £200,000 cap pushed scheme buyers towards cheaper new builds, and that when the cap was lifted under a different scheme, buyers moved up the price range.

The Scottish housing market has changed since. There were 8,940 new mortgages advanced to first-time buyers for house purchase in Scotland in Q2 2025, an annual increase¹⁷. First-time buyers remain a substantial part of the market, but they are doing it without Help to Buy.

Existing loans and the agents that manage them

If you hold a Help to Buy (Scotland) loan, the scheme's closure does not affect your obligation to repay it. The loan is secured against your home and is settled when you sell, remortgage, or pay it off from your own funds.

The process for dealing with the loan depends on what you are doing. If you are remortgaging, you have to contact the registered social landlord or local council who handled the purchase of your home and send a copy of the Ranking Agreement¹⁸. That is the document that sets out where the government's security sits in relation to your mortgage lender's.

There is no single agent handling Help to Buy (Scotland) queries in Edinburgh, Fife or anywhere else. The current Scottish shared equity scheme, Open Market Shared Equity, is administered on behalf of Scottish Ministers by one agent across Scotland¹⁹, but that is a different scheme with a different administration.

If you are struggling with payments on any mortgage in Scotland, Money Advice Scotland can help you find details of agencies that give independent financial advice²⁰. The Scottish Welfare Fund is a separate route for crisis support, and it can help secure economies of scale, for example through bulk purchasing or re-use initiatives²¹.

What replaced it for first-time buyers in Scotland

Two Scottish Government schemes now do the work Help to Buy (Scotland) used to do, though neither is identical.

The First Home Fund offers up to £10,000 towards the cost of a property worth up to £300,000¹⁴. It is aimed at first-time buyers and is a contribution towards the purchase rather than a loan secured on a percentage of the home.

The Open Market Shared Equity scheme lets a buyer contribute between 60% and 90% of the purchase price, with the Scottish Government providing the rest⁹. It applies to existing homes on sale as well as new builds⁴. When the home is sold, the buyer gets their share percentage of the selling price and the Scottish Government gets the remainder¹¹.

There is also the New Supply Shared Equity scheme, which works on the same sale-proceeds principle¹².

For anyone buying in Scotland, it is worth knowing that most properties are advertised as "offers over", meaning buyers usually offer more than the listed amount²². That practice affects how much a buyer needs to have available, and it interacts with any scheme that caps the price it will support.

Is Help to Buy still available in Wales?

Yes. Help to Buy Wales is still running, and it is the only Help to Buy scheme in the UK still accepting applications.

The scheme started on 2 January 2014, and by 30 September 2025 there had been 15,043 completions under it²³. Applications must be submitted by 31 March 2027²⁴. The scheme will continue until that date²⁵.

To use it, you must be buying an eligible home with a maximum price of £300,000 from a builder who is registered with the scheme⁷. Help to Buy Wales Ltd manages the scheme on behalf of the Welsh Government²⁴.

The Help to Buy equity loan scheme is no longer available in England or Scotland²⁶. Wales is the exception, and the deadline of 31 March 2027 is the date that matters for anyone considering it.

Where to get help

If you are trying to buy a home in Scotland and want to know what support exists, the starting point is the Scottish Government's own guidance on the schemes that are open⁴. For independent advice on money problems, including mortgage difficulties, Money Advice Scotland can point you to agencies that give independent financial advice²⁰.

If you are buying in Scotland, it is worth understanding how the Scottish system differs from the rest of the UK, including the Home Report and the offers over convention²². The buying a home in Scotland guide covers that process step by step.

For anyone who held a Help to Buy (Scotland) loan and is now selling, the loan repayment comes out of the sale proceeds before you receive anything. The selling a shared ownership home guide covers the equivalent process for shared ownership, which follows similar principles.