New Help-to-buy scheme unveiled

The Scottish government has said it will spend £195m over the next three years on a new shared equity scheme to help people buy new-build homes.

Ministers said the new scheme would focus on affordable homes.

They said 6,500 eligible homebuyers could receive an equity loan towards the purchase price of a new-build home.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said the scheme would stimulate demand while failing to address the issue of housing supply.

A previous Help-to-Buy scheme closed in May after it became fully subscribed less than two months into this year's round of funding.

The £130m scheme aimed to give people a foot up on to the housing ladder if they were struggling to raise a deposit.

Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil said: "By targeting resources at affordable homes, the new scheme will widen access by providing a helping hand to individuals and families who wish to buy a new-build home.

"By the end of this new scheme, coupled with support through the current Help to Buy scheme, we will have helped around 14,000 households buy a new-build home.

"We will also reach our five-year plan of 30,000 affordable homes by March 2016 and our planned investment in affordable housing will exceed £1.7bn."

RICS welcomed the Scottish government's continued investment in affordable homes but said the target of 30,000 to be delivered by the end of this parliament would need to be increased and expanded.

On Tuesday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, setting out her government's legislative programme for the last session of the Scottish Parliament before the 2016 elections, unveiled a new Private Tenancies Bill.

It seeks to give tenants in the private rented sector (PRS) "increased security", while giving landlords, lenders and investors the "confidence to continue investing in the sector".

Sarah Speirs, director of RICS in Scotland, said: "Whilst the proposal for rent controls currently lacks detail, we urge the Scottish government to err on the side of caution in taking the proposal forward.

"If rent control is implemented incorrectly, for example the setting of rents below market rent without any balancing concessions for landlords, this could result in a catastrophic impact on PRS supply."

Jason Hogg, of property consultancy JLL, said: "The introduction of new shared equity scheme is a welcome relief after the vacuum left by the end of Help to Buy in Scotland. H

"However, without any further details regarding the eligibility or operation of the scheme, we're still facing another three months of stagnation.

"Secondly, we question whether the sum of funding - £195m - spread over three years is really enough to satisfy demand.

"Based on the Scottish government's previous Help to Buy budget of £100m for volume housebuilders, which only lasted six weeks, we would have to say it is nowhere near enough."