Help to Buy 2 scheme ended in England

The Help to Buy 2 scheme in England ended in April 2023, according to a government evaluation of the scheme¹. Help to Buy 2 ran from April 2021 to March 2023 and was restricted to first-time buyers, with regional price caps set at 1.5 times the average first-time buyer price in each region, up to £600,000 in London¹.

The scheme was the second iteration of Help to Buy, which launched in 2013 to tackle affordability as an obstacle to home ownership and to increase housing supply¹. Help to Buy 1 ran from 2013 to 2021 and was open to all types of buyer purchasing a new build property under a national price cap of £600,000¹. Both iterations provided an equity loan worth up to 20% of the property value, increased to 40% in London from February 2016¹. The loan was interest free for the first five years, with interest starting from 1.75% of the original loan amount and rising annually with a link to inflation¹.

Across the ten years the scheme operated, over 387,000 properties were purchased through it, of which 328,000 were bought by first-time buyers, and the total value of the equity loans was £24.7 billion¹. Annual sales started at almost 14,000 in 2013 and peaked at over 52,000 in both 2018 and 2019¹.

The evaluation found little evidence that the change to Help to Buy 2 in 2021, or the end of the English scheme in 2023, had a substantial effect on new housing supply¹. It did find some evidence of a negative impact from the closure on first-time buyer mortgage sales in England, suggesting the scheme was still supporting some people into home ownership at that point, particularly as higher interest rates created affordability pressures¹. The evaluation also found that around half of Help to Buy customers said they could have bought a home without the scheme¹.

Source: Evaluation of the Help to Buy scheme¹

Why it matters for households

The closure means the equity loan is no longer available on new purchases in England, so buyers looking at a first-time buyer scheme now face a different set of options from those who bought under Help to Buy 2. Households that did buy with an equity loan still hold one: the loan is interest free for the first five years after purchase, after which interest is charged at 1.75% of the original loan amount and rises annually in line with inflation¹. Repayment is based on the value of the property at the time, so the amount owed moves with house prices¹. The evaluation found that the scheme increased first-time buyer mortgage sales in England but that the effect on home ownership varied by area, with little effect in areas that were already relatively less affordable before the scheme began, which were also the areas where prices rose most¹. It also found that around half of customers said they could have bought without the scheme¹.

What happens next

The evaluation report was updated on 16 September 2026 and covers the scheme in England over 2013 to 2023¹. It states that Shared Ownership remains active as of 2026¹. No further steps for former Help to Buy customers are set out in the report.