Just 0.6% of the first-time buyers who were helped under a popular SNP scheme were based on Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Newly-released figures led to opposition claims the islands had been “ignored” under the Scottish Government’s First Home Fund.
The low figures for the islands have emerged despite a lack of affordable housing being considered a key factor accelerating population decline in rural areas.
They showed there were 11,800 property sales in Scotland completed between December 2019 and June 2022 with the support of the initiative.
However, fewer than 20 of the homes were in Orkney, only 20 were in Shetland and under 30 of them were in the Western Isles.
The Argyll and Bute council area, which also contains many islands, was the next lowest in Scotland, with 90 sales under the First Home Fund in the period.
In Highland there were 420, in Aberdeen City the number was 520, in Aberdeenshire it was 450 and in Moray there were 190 sales.
The areas with the highest numbers of sales were Glasgow, where 1,540 first-time buyers were supported, followed by 1,140 in Edinburgh and 950 in South Lanarkshire.
How did the scheme work?
The shared equity scheme provided first-time buyers with up to £25,000 to help them buy a home.
It initially ran from December 2019 to October 2020, attracting more than 10,000 applications before hitting its near-£200m budget.
The fund reopened with a scaled-back £60m pot of money on April 1 last year.
But we exclusively reported at the time that the cash was fully committed within just eight days of the relaunch.
Memos released under freedom of information laws later showed it was almost fully committed within 24 hours.
They also revealed that the scheme was quietly axed in September last year after officials raised fears about the “significant and unsustainable demand” for the financial support.
Scottish Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron said: “Our rural and island communities housing needs have been routinely ignored by the SNP during their 15 years in office, and this scheme is just the latest example.
“SNP ministers completely failed to give the First Home Fund the resources it needed meaning it had to be closed down almost as soon as it opened.
“That meant the number of homes sold in these areas were woefully low.”
The First Home Fund was open to both new build homes and pre-existing properties across Scotland.
The Scottish Government said the scheme was “demand-led”, with applicants choosing where they would like to purchase a home.
Buyers in rural and island areas can also access the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE).
In August, to reflect current market conditions, the Scottish Government introduced changes to OMSE, including increasing the threshold prices by an average of 9% to help even more people access the scheme across Scotland.
