First Time Buyers Scheme - successful applicants since 2014

Summary

The requester asked for annual statistics on successful First Time Buyers Scheme applicants since 2014 and comparisons with the pre-2014 House Purchase Assistance Scheme. The Department of Infrastructure responded that it does not hold data on individual applicants but provided figures for assisted purchases across various schemes from 1999 to 2021.

Key Facts

• The First Time Buyers Scheme inception date is 1999, not 2014 as assumed by the requester.
• The authority does not hold data on the number of individuals accessing the schemes, only the number of assisted purchases.
• Assisted purchases may represent either a sole person or a joint purchase by multiple people.
• Shared Equity Schemes (SEPA FHF and SEPA FHC) were introduced in 2014.
• The total number of assisted purchases recorded across all schemes from 1999 to 2021 is 1,595.

Data Disclosed

• 1999
• 2014
• 2021-06-21
• 2021-07-08
• 1858125
• 1595
• 251
• 674
• 335
• 135
• 96
• 100
• 20/21
• 99/00

Original Request

The number of people per year who have accessed the First Time Buyers' Scheme, and successfully purchased a property using it, since it's inception in July 2014. By comparison, the number of people who utilised the House Purchase Assistance Scheme each year up to July 2014.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Department of Infrastructure Sea Terminal Building, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 2RF

Contact: FOI Response Team/JH/RH Telephone: (01624) 686785 Email: dpo-doi@gov.im

Our ref: 1858125 8 July 2021

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 21 June 2021 and which states (sic):

"The number of people per year who have accessed the First Time Buyers' Scheme, and successfully purchased a property using it, since it's inception in July 2014. By comparison, the number of people who utilised the House Purchase Assistance Scheme each year up to July 2014."

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested.

I have detailed below the information that is held. The inception of the First Time Buyer Scheme was 1999 and therefore, the Department has provided the below table showing the number of assisted purchases in each financial year from when the first version of the House Purchase Assistance Scheme came into operation in 1999. The numbers per financial year are then broken down to show which Scheme the purchases were made under and this includes the Shared Equity Schemes, both of which were introduced in 2014. To be clear, although your request asks for the number of people who have accessed the Schemes, the Department has provided the below figures to show the number of assisted purchases rather than individuals since the information on numbers of assisted persons is not held. Each of these assisted purchases may either represent a sole person or a joint purchase by more than one person. Acronyms or shortened names for the Schemes are used in the table as follows: HPAS 1999 – House Purchase Assistance Scheme 1999 HPAS 2002 – House Purchase Assistance Scheme 2002 Over 45s – House Purchase (Persons Aged 45 or Over) Assistance Scheme 2005 HPAS 2007 – House Purchase Assistance Scheme 2007 HPAS 2012 – House Purchase Assistance Scheme 2012

SEPA FHF 2014 – Shared Equity Purchase Assistance (First Home Fixed) Scheme 2014 SEPA FHC 2014 – Shared Equity Purchase Assistance (First Home Choice) Scheme 2014 Year HPAS 1999 HPAS 2002 Over 45s HPAS 2007 HPAS 2012 SEPA FHF 2014 SEPA FHC 2014 Total 99/00 32 32 00/01 68 68 01/02 111 111 02/03 40 35 75 03/04 85 85 04/05 89 89 05/06 223 0 223 06/07 94 0 94 07/08 124 0 38 162 08/09 24 2 73 99 09/10 2 54 56 10/11 98 98 11/12 53 53 12/13 19 32 51 13/14 87 87 14/15 16 0 7 23 15/16 24 25 49 16/17 13 22 35 17/18 12 17 29 18/19 19 12 31 19/20 19 6 25 20/21 9 11 20 Total 251 674 4 335 135 96 100 1595 Please quote the reference number 1858125 in any future communications.

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Yours faithfully

FOI Response Team