A survey of homebuyers has revealed opposition to the rumoured return of the Help To Buy initiative to get tenants to become owners.

Help to Buy was a government scheme to help first-time buyers get a property with just a five per cent deposit. You could borrow 20 per cent of the purchase price (40 per cent in London), interest-free for five years. 

It was dropped late last year.

Some 54 per cent of those responding to a survey by property firm GetAgent say the return of the scheme would not help improve the housing market.

And no fewer than 79 per cent say Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is simply trying to win votes rather than genuinely help tenants become home owners.

This follows a report in The Times recently suggesting Sunak was considering resuscitating the idea.

GetAgent says although 81 per cent want to see the government do more to reduce the cost of homeownership, just 46 per cent think the Help to Buy scheme should be re-introduced.

Colby Short, co-founder and chief executive of GetAgent, says: “As with any whisperings on government housing policy, we won’t really know what Help to Buy 2.0 looks like until it is fully announced.

“Fuelling demand without addressing supply is a short-term fix to a long-term problem and, in doing so, only drives house prices ever higher to the detriment of those such schemes are supposed to help.

“Unfortunately, the government’s record on delivering more homes speaks for itself, and so it’s no surprise that today’s homebuyers are highly sceptical of the re-introduction of Help to Buy.”