MORE women than men applied to the Scottish Government’s scheme to help first time buyers, figures have revealed.
The First Home Fund provides loans of up to £25,000 for first time buyers to help boost their deposit and purchase a property in Scotland.
Freedom of Information (FOI) figures released this week showed 2862 applications were approved as of July 7 2021.
The statistics also reveal that the scheme was taken up by more people under 30 than those in higher age brackets.
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The most popular places for first time buyers taking up the scheme were also revealed, with the most in Glasgow, followed closely by Edinburgh.
First time buyers taking part in the scheme were also more likely to buy existing properties, rather than new builds.
The scheme initially opened for applications on December 18 2019, and again in April 2021. Due to the high number of applications, the fund was closed shortly afterwards. The FOI figures relate to the second round of applications, between 1 and 8 April this year.
The applications in the release relate to applications that had been approved and were either settled or awaiting settlement.
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The data given on age and gender breakdown includes both applicants in cases where there are joint applications, and therefore the total number is higher than the total number of applications.
The gender breakdown reveals that there were 1254 women who applied to the First Home Fund, compared to 1235 men. However, 2005 applicants did not provide their gender.
There were also more joint applications than single ones, with 1632 couples looking to buy their first home, compared to 1230 single-person applications.
The figures also showed that more young people under 30 applied to the scheme than those 31 and over.
For those aged 18-25, 1089 applications were received to the fund, and for those 26-30 there were 1658 applications, a total of 2747.
There were only 1732 applications for the higher age groups. For 31-35 there were 930 applications, for 36-40 there were 458, for 41-15 there were 209, for 46-50 there were 90, for 51-60 there were 44, and there was only one applicant aged over 60.
The range of price of the properties those applying to the fund aimed to buy was also revealed.
The lowest price range was £100,000, growing steadily to the upper price of £262,000.
There was no breakdown given of the cost of each property given by application. The figures were instead broken down by decile.
And, first time homeowners were more likely to pick an existing property over a new build.
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There were 1650 applications for "existing build properties", according to the FOI release, compared to 1212 applications for new builds.
The data also breaks down the number of applications per council area, and Scotland’s two biggest cities Glasgow and Edinburgh top the list.
South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, Fife and Renfrewshire were the next most popular places for first time buyers taking part in the scheme. You can see the full breakdown below.
Local Authority and number of applications to the First Home Fund
April 2021
- Glasgow City - 358
- City of Edinburgh - 285
- South Lanarkshire - 261
- North Lanarkshire - 197
- Fife - 189
- Renfrewshire - 142
- Aberdeen City - 136
- West Lothian - 127
- Midlothian - 124
- Dundee City - 109
- Aberdeenshire - 106
- Highlands - 96
- Falkirk - 79
- East Lothian - 74
- Angus - 57
- Perth and Kinross - 55
- East Ayrshire - 53
- Moray - 46
- North Ayrshire - 46
- East Renfrewshire - 40
- Stirling - 40
- West Dunbartonshire - 37
- Clackmannanshire - 29
- East Dunbartonshire - 24
- Inverclyde - 24
- Scottish Borders - 22
- South Ayrshire - 20
- Dumfries and Galloway - 16
- Argyll and Bute - 12
- Na h-Eileanan Siar - 4
- Orkney Islands - 2
- Shetland Islands - 1
No address provided: 51
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