Help to Buy has been available in Wales for over a year now, and the figures have been released to chart the progress of the last government’s flagship housing scheme.

The £170 million scheme works the same as the main Help to Buy schemes in England, with people being assisted by the Welsh government to be able to purchase a home.

The point of the Help to Buy schemes was to both help people who otherwise would not be able to afford a deposit to purchase their first home, and to stimulate the house building market.

If more people could be able to buy a house, theoretically, there should be a higher demand for them, and therefore cause building firms to be able to build more.

Whether this worked in practice is a point of contention in the country.

The Welsh Help to Buy scheme, in the year it has been available, has helped buy 1,400 new build homes.

74 per cent of these have been reported to go to first time buyers.

On average, the houses were priced at £178,290.

Furthermore, there is supposedly 600 more house sales in the immediate future to be finalised, and the scheme is on course to help generate the construction of 5,000 new homes.

Early in the year, it was reported by the BBC that experts said the UK needs to see 250,000 homes built every year to keep up with demand and keep the housing market stable.

This has, however, been consistently missed since 2007.

Although Help to Buy has helped 1,400 people become new, first time home owners in Wales, the 5,000 more homes built is a far cry from the 250,000 needed. With the new government having come into power, hopefully they will be able to push towards this figure and make Help to Buy a cure and not just part of the problem.