The federation said that with the home buying process taking several weeks, the figures revealed a remarkable start for a scheme only introduced on 12th March and expected to deliver tens of thousands of sales over the next three years.
Around 60,000 starts per quarter are needed to meet housing demand said the HBF however housing starts in the first quarter of this year only reached 24,140.
Alongside the NewBuy scheme, the government is working with nine government departments and organisations including the BBC, Network Rail and Royal Mail to find unused sites for house building, meaning ministers are on course to release enough land for 100,000 homes by 2015.
Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the HBF, said: “Reaching 400 NewBuy reservations within weeks of its launch is a fantastic start and clearly demonstrates the customer demand for this vital scheme.
“These figures make us very confident that the scheme will deliver tens of thousands of sales over the coming years.
“As today’s house building statistics show, we have an acute housing delivery problem. By enabling home buyers to purchase a new home NewBuy will kick-start new home construction creating economic growth and thousands of jobs across the country.”
