The Government's announcement of a new Help to Buy scheme, this time branded as "Your First Home" is likely to have a significant impact on the property sector and housebuilding in particular, although the precise level of impact will depend on the details, due to be announced in the October budget. The Government is well behind on its target to build 1.5 million homes during this parliament, and this announcement should help get closer to this goal, although it remains a very challenging target.

What has been confirmed is that the Government will extend a loan to would-be first time buyers that will initially be interest-free and allow purchases with deposits from as little as 2.5% of the purchase price. The interest-free nature of the loan is likely to be of particular value given current mortgage rates, compared to the previous version of the scheme that was launched during a much lower interest rate environment.

The intention of the scheme is to help first time buyers who would be unable to afford a first home otherwise. It will include a household income cap and local property price cap to help target this support. However, there is no mention of whether buyers' savings will be measured. The prime minister has indicated that this scheme is not intended for buyers with wealthy families - those who can rely on the so-called "Bank of Mum and Dad" - but the exact design of the scheme will need to be carefully balanced to avoid claims of unfairness, with some first-time buyers having put aside savings into the Government's LISA to put towards their first purchase. Any scheme that penalises those savers would risk widespread criticism.

The announcement is likely to have a positive effect on house prices, boosting demand and injecting capital into the system.  The Government's recent review suggested that the previous help to buy scheme only increased house prices by around 2% over its course, although we note that Land Registry data shows house prices increased 33% in the five years following its announcement. More likely to benefit are the UK's beleaguered housebuilding firms; Persimmon's shareholders enjoyed 300% returns over the same five year period from 2013-2018. While past performance is no guarantee, the announcement should be a positive one from their perspective. However, the new scheme will include a developer's fee to try and claw back some of this upside; full details will be crucial to assess exactly how impactful "Your First Home" will be for the sector.