Liebrary: Does Government "Help To Buy" help house buyers on modest incomes get 95% mortgages? Shelter, the housing charity, reveals that people on average incomes can't actually afford repayments on 95% mortgages.

The Conservative led government's "Help To Buy" provides £12 billion of guarantees allowing people to buy houses with just a 5% deposit. This government guarantee enables them to take out a 95% mortgage. 
We pointed out in an earlier post that this subsidy is available to people buying homes for up to £600,000 - i.e. not aimed at those on modest incomes, nor at first-time-buyers.

We were scolded by some, who said that while £600,000 was the upper limit the subsidy was also available for those on modest and low incomes aspiring to less than a 4 bedroom detached house in Surrey. 

Shelter's "Homes for Forgotten Families" report

A report by the housing charity "Shelter", released in August 2013 shows this is actually not the case.

Their report shows that in almost three quarters of England families on an average (median) income could not afford the repayments on a 90% mortgage (let alone a 95% "Help To Buy" mortgage) for an average 3 bedroom home in their area.

Shelter's "Homes for Forgotten Families" report

Shelter's "Homes for Forgotten Families" report

"Help To Buy" is available to everybody, but useless to most average people. For them the "Help To Buy" scheme is about as much use as the government handing out free ski passes for Verbier (a Swiss ski resort). No point having a free ski-pass if you can't afford to fly there, stay there, and hire some skis.

Rather like the multitude of tax avoidance loopholes the governments past and present provide: they are available to everyone of us, but only accessible to a very few.