The government has revealed that since the launch of the Help to Buy equity loan and mortgage guarantee schemes, 80% of scheme completions have been made by first-time buyers.

The average house price was £184,000, significantly below the national average and almost 94,000 people have bought a home through the scheme.

In addition, 95% of Help to Buy completions took place outside of London and over half of Help to Buy completions have been for new-build homes.

Together with the government’s Help to Buy: NewBuy scheme – which offered 95% mortgages for those buying new-build properties – the number of new home owners has reached 99,601.

Miguel Sard, managing director of mortgages at Santander UK, said: “Many young people had given up hope of buying their own home, left feeling that saving a large enough deposit and accessing an affordable mortgage was impossible. The HTB schemes have been game-changing in challenging that belief and we are now seeing more and more young people make the step onto the housing ladder.

“With nearly 60% of our HTB2 loans being taken by those aged under 30, and seeing these loans performing well, increases confidence in lending at 95% LTV for the right customers.”