TAKE-UP of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme in Gloucestershire has been small according to a report by the Royal Agricultural University.

Lecturers in Real Estate and Land Management (RELM) at the RAU, Dr Arvydas Jadevicius and Dr Simon Huston, have published a report examining the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme’s quarterly statistics.

During the first six months of the HTB scheme 7,313 mortgages, 7.52 per cent of all residential mortgage completions in the UK, were completed.

Gloucestershire represents 1.2 per cent of all completed loans supported by the mortgage guarantee scheme in England, and only 0.4 per cent in the UK. Just 30 HTB mortgages were completed in the county with 97 per cent of approved loans taken out in Cheltenham (13) and Gloucester (16). The average mortgage loan in Cheltenham was £152,100 (total loan value of £2m), compared with £139,500 in Gloucester.

Regional analysis suggests that there were 599 mortgage completions in the South West, and the average property value was £157,500.

Nationally, the data indicates that almost half (45 per cent) of mortgage completions were for properties worth less than £125,000, while 22 per cent of mortgages were for between £150,000 and £200,000.

Professor Ali Parsa, Dean of the School of Real Estate and Land Management, said: “Concerns are rising about the lack of affordable housing for ordinary people. In this ‘Help to Buy Scheme’s assessment, Gloucestershire’ report, the School has outlined key impacts of the Help to Buy Scheme in Gloucestershire.”

Report co-author Dr Simon Huston believes that it is the relative low wages and lack of skilled jobs in rural regions that are the biggest hurdle to getting people on the property ladder.

Read the full report at rau.ac.uk .