One of the first banks to offer the Help to Buy mortgage scheme says it received double the amount of enquiries it would normally expect to over the initial few days of its launch.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has revealed that it took over 10,000 phone calls four days into the initiative – with 5,000 of those received within the first three hours of going live.

Overall, around 5,000 appointments have so far been booked with the bank.

According to RBS, the average person applying for Help to Buy is 32 years old and is looking to buy a property under a joint mortgage.

The youngest person to apply so far is 19, while the oldest is 42.

Speaking to the Telegraph, RBS’ head of mortgages Lloyd Cochrane said: ” From Tuesday over 740 of our branches will be open longer to make sure we continue to help as many customers as we can.”

He added that he expected the high demand for the Help to Buy mortgages to continue, while appointments for next week “filling up fast”.