The review also found that three in 10 previously lived with their family whilst the average income of a Help to Buy purchaser who used to privately rent is £41,000, with around a third (35%) earning less than 30,000.
Nigel Stockton, group financial services director, said: “The Help to Buy scheme is enabling a growing number of households to achieve their aspiration of homeownership at a time when the proportion of high loan to value values is historically low.
“Given that the scheme is funded by the government, it is important that those using it would otherwise find it difficult to buy without assistance. This has almost exclusively been the case with the majority of purchasers coming from the private rented sector or the parental home.
“Help to Buy remains an extremely popular policy among aspiring homeowners. While the use of the scheme by existing homeowners is perhaps less politically acceptable, they tend to be households with little or no existing equity in parts of the country where house prices remain below the levels at which they bought.”
Help to Buy has been widely used by homeowners in the Northern England, as in the North East nearly 30% of properties purchased through the scheme were by existing homeowners.
And despite question marks over housing supply in the UK, Countrywide has carried out 24% more market appraisals in June 2014 than June 2013 and 14% more in London.
Grenville Turner, chief executive of Countrywide, said: “In a sign that the supply/demand imbalance is beginning to even out, the large increases in house prices in London and the South East are beginning to attract new sellers to the market.
“With more people thinking about selling, the number of properties available looks set to increase over the coming months.
“This will have a significant impact in parts of London where a fall in properties for sale over the past nine months has put considerable upward pressure on house prices.
“If this rise in appraisals translates into a larger number of available properties coming on to the market, increased choice for buyers will serve to alleviate some of the upward pressure on house prices.”
