Carl Sargeant, Welsh Minister for Housing and Regeneration, was in Newport this week to announce the launch of the Help to Buy Wales programme.

Mr Sargeant was at Redrow Homes' Mon Bank development in Newport.

Help to Buy Wales is a government-funded shared equity scheme, which will launch in Wales on January 2, 2014. It will enable existing home owners and first time buyers to purchase a new build home up to a value of £300,000 with as little as five per cent deposit.

Help to Buy has been long awaited by home buyers and house builders alike in Wales since it was successfully introduced in England back in April, resulting in a significant boost in the new homes property market.

Managing director of Redrow Homes South Wales, Stuart Rowlands said: “Our sales teams across South Wales regularly meet with potential home buyers who just fall short of the requirements to secure a mortgage, in particular first time buyers. We have received numerous enquiries in recent months from house hunters wishing to purchase via the Help to Buy scheme, following its success in England. They have been disappointed to discover that it was not available to them in Wales.

“Help to Buy Wales will provide thousands of individuals and families across the country with the opportunity to own their own home, and will be a huge positive for the Welsh housing sector. The expected rise in demand will in turn increase the supply of new homes built, which is good news for the Welsh construction jobs and the economy as a whole.

“Developments such as Mon Bank are a prime example of the high quality housing which will meet the aspirations of new home buyers and the demand which will be created with the introduction of Help to Buy."

Glyn Mabey, regional chairman for Wales at Persimmon Homes, said: “We are extremely pleased with this announcement as we’ve been working closely with the Welsh Government to achieve this for some time. Similar schemes have been in operation with our English companies for several years now and have been highly successful in stimulating the market to generate a lot more new homes and a lot more jobs to go with it. As a result we have launched one of our biggest ever recruitment campaigns in England from apprentice level to company directors.

"This is only a first step in Wales as there are several other constraining Welsh Government policy areas that need to be addressed to get housing development and investment in Wales on a level playing field with the rest of the UK, but nevertheless this is a good start and we welcome it as it can only serve to help economic growth in Wales.”

The introduction of Help to Buy Wales follows the launch in late September of the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme across the UK which offers support for re sale and new build properties up to £600,000. This scheme increased the availability of higher loan to value mortgages which will be further enhanced by the introduction of Help to Buy Wales.