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Help to Buy has driven £1 billion of new loans and 6,000 mortgage applications in just three months, but brokers say its real impact is far greater.

In just 12 weeks, nearly 750 homeowners completed their purchases and hundreds were able to spend Christmas in their new homes, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Thursday.

But Jeremy Duncombe, director, Legal & General Mortgage Club, said Help to Buy's impact has been even more positive than these figures suggest.

"Arguably the biggest benefit of Help to Buy has been the confidence and awareness that it has driven among consumers.

"It has showed borrowers that it was possible to buy a new home, with a smaller deposit, and at historically cheap rates.

"Thanks to this renewed confidence, estate agents have reported an increased footfall and while those borrowers did not necessarily use Help to Buy, they got advice and possibly took a lower-LTV product instead.

"In these cases, Help to Buy has been instrumental at getting people through the door and stirring the mortgage market from stagnation." 

The new government figures also showed the average home bought under the scheme cost £160,000, well below the UK average of £247,000

Applicants face average monthly repayments of around £900 and have an annual household income of around £45,000.

This means the typical Help to Buy mortgage represents 23% of the borrower's gross income, which suggests that borrowers aren't over-stretching themselves.

Around three-quarters of applications are from outside London and the South East, with over 80% from first-time buyers

Charles Haresnape, managing director for Residential Mortgages at Aldermore, warned that fuelling demand without addressing supply shortages is storing trouble for the future.

“I welcome the government’s help for buyers and those looking to remortgage, but it must be matched by incentives for builders and the abolition of red tape which is holding back building projects."

Government figures also showed that an additional 20,000 households have also been supported by the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme, which supports the purchase of new-build homes.

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