CLOSE to three quarters of all new homes built in Colchester last year were sold using a scheme to get people on the property ladder.

The Help to Buy loan scheme sees the Government lend buyers up to 20 per cent of the cost of a new-build house.

It in turn means they only need a five per cent deposit alongside a mortgage.

New figures have revealed 541 of the 750 new build homes sold in Colchester in 2018 were purchased using the scheme.

This equates to 72.1 per cent of all new homes.

Last year more than half of all new-build property purchases in England where made using Help to Buy.

The scheme is due to end in 2023 and buyers will face stricter rules from 2021.

It has led to fears about an over reliance on the scheme.

But house buyers in Colchester said it would not have been possible for them to buy a house without it.

Josephine Oakley purchased a property at the Hythe in December 2011.

She said: “I saw it in the newspaper as there was a sales opening day for the new build flats being advertised and they wrote that Help to Buy was available

“I then Googled it more and realised I would be able to afford to buy a flat with my £7,000 savings which I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.”

Under Help to Buy anyone who purchases a house must start paying back their loan after five years.

Fellow buyer Mike Hulse used Help to Buy in November 2016.

He said: “Worked for us as we knew we’d be able to pay off the equity loan within five years.

“I probably would not have gone down Help to Buy route if we knew we wouldn’t be in a position to pay the loan off after five years.”

Joseph Daniels, the chief executive officer of modular house building firm Project Etopia which carried out the research, said: “Building more homes is the long-term solution to the housing crisis, not a free leg up.

“This startling research shows just how far Help to Buy is underpinning and driving the new build market across the whole of England.

“There is a danger that, once the scheme ends, the rug could be pulled out from beneath those areas that have come to rely on Help To Buy to too great a degree.”