Chancellor George Osborne's Help To Buy scheme could increase property prices
GEORGE OSBORNE’s scheme to help buyers will just drive up prices, a think-tank warns.
The Adam Smith Institute says the Help To Buy scheme – providing 20 per cent loans to buyers with a five per cent deposit for new homes – will raise demand without boosting supply, so increasing prices.
The institute’s Sam Bowman said: “Taxpayer subsidised handouts to home buyers will only drive prices up, risking a bubble, improving access for a few but making housing more unaffordable for most people.”
The Chancellor said: “There are thousands of families who can’t afford the mortgage deposits required to buy a home. I want to help them.”