House building company Barratt Developments aims to approve between 21,000 to 23,000 new plots this year, due to an increase in competition in the mortgage market.
Help to Buy used forward sales to help gain an increase in their interest rates, it was increased by 9.7 per cent across the 12 months to 08 May, to stand at £2.8billion, up from £2.59 billion.
Barratt said: “The Government continues to focus on increasing house building by improving land availability through the land release programme, streamlining planning and supporting customer demand.
“We anticipate a continuation of the supportive environment for house building, as evidenced by the increase in the Help to Buy Government Equity Loan proportion to 40 per cent in London this year.”
Any increase in the amount of homes being built is good news for first time buyers. Higher availability means that prices have more of a chance of coming down and into the more affordable price range.
Help to Buy has helped boost Barratt’s sales by 38 per cent this year, and it is already a 13 per cent increase from last year. However, Barratt said that if Britain leaves the European Union, it would damage the housing market and the company’s labour force. The firm would prefer the UK to stay in the EU, as they say it could have a negative effect on house prices.
