The combined total of the Help to Buy scheme sales is approaching the 100,000 mark, new figures have shown.

The Help to Buy scheme is split into two main parts, the Help to Buy Equity Loan, which came into play first, and then the Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee. Both have been used to help thousands of first time buyers move into their own home and become property owners.

Together, this number combines to make almost 94,000 people who have become homeowners through the joint effort of the schemes.

The national average house price is in the region of £273,000, whereas the average one sold on one of the Help to Buy schemes is around £184,000.

This indicates that the scheme is helping those who are less well off financially and are opting for cheaper homes.

This would seem to indicate the scheme is doing what it set out to do: help first time buyers to purchase a home by securing them cheaper deposits.

However, the scheme has been criticised for boosting house prices by making the low number of available homes more accessible, rather than promoting house building and bringing down prices that way.

Still, help to Buy seems to have helped the 94,000 people who have used it, and in that way has made a difference. Whether it will be cut when it runs out in 2020 and 2016 (Help to Buy Equity Loan and Help to Buy Mortgage guarantee respectively) or become a staple part of the housing market remains to be seen.