TAKING the first step on to the property ladder still remains the goal for a lot of people. As the New Year began, there was news about the Help to Buy scheme which gives assistance to first time buyers.

One of the difficulties which people faced was having to raise a high deposit before being able to secure a mortgage and so the scheme addresses help to people in this situation.

Two more banks, Barclays and Santander, are joining the scheme in January 2014. This means that two-thirds of the UK mortgage market are offering Help to Buy facilities.

Others already in the scheme are the Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, HSBC, Virgin Money and Aldermore. In November, the data covering the first month of Help to Buy was published by ministers. More than 2,000 people put in offers on homes and applied for a Help to Buy mortgage.

By January, that number had tripled and is now more than 6,000. Subject to approval, that means there will be nearly £1 billion of new lending. In addition, about 20,000 households have been supported through the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme. The latter provides an interest-free loan for people to buy a newly-built home.

Of course lending has to be responsible and these figures show that the average applicants are looking at buying a property worth about £160,000, which is below the UK average house price of £247,000 About three-quarters of the applications are coming in from outside London and the South East.

People interested in the scheme can do a self assessment through www.helptobuy.org.uk and find information covering the Buckinghamshire area through www.catalysthomebuy.org.uk, who can be telephoned on 0845 601 7729.