The Help to Buy scheme has helped 35,000 people to buy their own home, the government has said.

New figures today show that since the launch of Help to Buy 14 months ago, 22,831 people have bought newly-built homes through the Help to Buy: equity loan scheme.

There have also been 7,313 sales through the Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee and 5,173 sales through the Help to Buy: NewBuy scheme. This takes total sales through Help to Buy to over 35,000.

All sales through Help to Buy: equity loan – and three-quarters of overall sales through all elements of Help to Buy – are new-build properties.

Since the launch of the scheme, house building is up a third compared to last year and at its highest level since 2007, while 216,000 planning permissions were granted in the last 12 months.

Recent estimates still show that Help to Buy accounts for just 3% of overall house sales.

Nationally, 86% of Help to Buy: equity loan sales were to first-time buyers, while the average house price under the scheme was £206,084 – far lower than the £252,000 average house price. The vast majority of Help to Buy: equity loan sales – 94% – are outside London.

Overall, the highest numbers of Help to Buy sales are in Leeds, where there were 580.