Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme queries: FOI release

Information requested

• How much money was spent/used each year since 2008 from the funding given to the OMSE scheme by the Scottish Government?
• The total number of applicants to the scheme, the number of first-time buyers who secured a passport (funding), and the total number of sales (property purchases) - broken down by local authority and covering the years 2021/22, 2022/23.
• Would you be able to advise what happens to the funding allocated to successful applicants who were subsequently unable to purchase a property?

Response

I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested.

To answer your first question, how much of the OMSE budget was spent/used each year since 2008, the table below sets out the actual funding provided through the OMSE scheme as recorded on Housing and Regeneration Programmes (HARP) database:

Financial Year	Actual £m
2008/09	19.6
2009/10	47.0
2010/11	5.1
2011/12	5.5
2012/13	18.8
2013/14	14.9
2014/15	38.7
2015/16	55.4
2016/17	68.1
2017/18	70.8
2018/19	77.3
2019/20	51.4
2020/21	35.1
2021/22	44.2
2022/23	35.5
2023/24	52.8
2024/25	13.0

For your second question I have enclosed a PDF detailing the total number of applicants to the scheme, the number of first-time buyers who were approved for the OMSE scheme and secured a passport, and the total number of sales all broken down by local authority and covering the years 2021/22, 2022/23.

The bold figure along from each Local Authority row show the total number of applications received. The bold figures next to the sale and expired rows show the total number of passports (given to approved applications) which have resulted in a sale and the total number passports which expired. The non bolded numbers show the total number of first time buyers who bought through the scheme and the total number of first time buyers whose passports expired. The first time buyers sale figure plus the first time buyers expired figure will give the total number of first time buyers whose applications were approved.

To answer your third question, applicants to OMSE do not have specific funding allocated to them until they are in the process of purchasing an approved property. However, where funding is not drawn down by an applicant it is either returned to the OMSE scheme to be utilised in year or redeployed to support other schemes in that financial year. Funding that not been utilised in year is carried over through the Scotland Reserve and allocated to support key priorities in future years

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500455349 - Information Released - Annex

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