Following the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s confirmation of a new first-time buyer support scheme for the new build market – Your First Home - in the Autumn Budget, Savills Research has provided some initial analysis.
Buyers are able to pre-register for the scheme from December 2026, with the first sales supported by it completing in April 2027.
Emily Williams, Director of Residential Research at Savills says: “Whilst we don’t think Your First Home will boost volumes by the same amount as Help to Buy, it will provide welcome support to the new homes sales market. We also expect that Your First Home will provide housebuilders with increased certainty around sales rates, and in the medium term, will boost demand in the land market. However, with the scheme not coming into effect until the start of Q2 next year, new build sales rates are expected to remain low over the next few months.”
Savills Research expects new build completions in England will climb to around 190,000 per year from 2029-30, thanks to the scheme, alongside an improving economic outlook and increased land supply. This would be a 25% increase against anticipated completions in 2026-27.
Full analysis, covering who the scheme is for, which homes are eligible, the likely take up, its impact on the land market and development activity, and what this means for London, can be downloaded here.
Key takeaways include:
- With £4.7bn of funding announced, we expect the scheme to support around 65,000 new home sales over five years.
- Local authority level price caps mean that the scheme should be effective across the country, unlike the final version of Help to Buy.
- Housebuilders may have to adjust their product towards smaller homes to fit within the caps.
- In London, we expect Your First Home will only be effective in outer boroughs.