After years standing helplessly at the bottom of the property ladder watching others clamber upwards, first-time buyers in Scotland are at last making it on to that first rung.
This group have helped drive the strongest house sales for seven years.
Some 60,000 properties were sold in the first eight months of this year in Scotland, a rise of 17 per cent on the same period in 2013. This is in spite of a slight drop in sales in August compared to July, caused by uncertainty over the outcome of the independence referendum.
This change in the fortunes of first-time buyers is not before time and owes much to the Help To Buy scheme, which has assisted with the purchase of 3,000 homes since its inception last year, all for buyers who would not be able to afford the purchase price of their home without it.
Help To Buy, a UK-wide scheme run in Scotland by the Scottish Government, is designed to help first-time buyers who struggled so much in the pre-recession era of spiralling prices and then suffered along with most people from diminishing incomes during and after the recession. At the same time, the scheme is intended to stimulate house building, Scotland - and indeed the UK as a whole - having a shortage of most types of housing.
It has worked on both fronts: this week Mark Clare, the chief executive of Barratt Developments, speaking to The Herald, called for the Scottish Government to put more money into Help To Buy. He warned that without more cash for the scheme (all funds for transactions in 2014/15 have already been allocated) the housing market could dampen.
The firm suggested the £125million allocated in the Scottish Budget last week for unspecified "financial support for the housing sector" could be allocated to Help To Buy, but there are other legitimate demands on that money. Would-be first-time buyers are not the only ones stuck in a housing bind: there are plenty of individuals, couples and families who cannot afford to consider buying even with Government assistance and there is not enough social housing available for them.
The Scottish Government has made the right decision by restricting Help To Buy to properties worth up to £250,000 instead of £400,000 in 2015/16. That will help ensure the limited available funding goes to those who need it the most.
Above all, Scotland must avoid the development of another house price bubble: that would undermine the efforts of the Help To Buy scheme in assisting purchasers. That being so, it is not unmitigated bad news that, while house prices have risen year on year by 5.7 per cent, the referendum has put a mild brake on price inflation, with a slight drop in August compared to July, the first fall since August 2013. That effect is likely to diminish now the independence question is settled for the foreseeable future.
The balance between price rises, property sales and the availability of affordable housing is improving, but it will be important for the Scottish and UK Governments to keep a close watch to ensure there is no sliding back into the problems of the bad old days.
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