Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many first time buyers there were in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025; and what proportion of those bought through shared ownership schemes.

My Department does not collect data on the number of first-time buyers.

The Office for National Statistics publishes data on first-time buyer mortgage sales by local authority in the UK. They can be found on its website here. Data covers the period between 2006 and 2024. Data for 2025 has not yet been published.

While it is not possible to provide information on the overall proportion of first time buyers that bought through shared ownership, my Department collects data on shared ownership sales by private registered providers of Social Housing, including whether these were to first time buyers.

This data is used to produce an estimate of the proportion of shared ownership sales by private registered providers that are to first time buyers. These estimates are published for 2022-23 and 2023-24 as part of the Social Housing Sales and Demolitions statistical release. The 2024-25 publication has been pre-announced for publication in January/February 2026. My department only collects similar data from local authorities on a voluntary basis.