Buying Schemes

Help to buy

What is help to buy?

The Help to Buy scheme offers an equity loan where the government lends first-time buyers money to buy a newly built home.

How does it work?

The property price must be less than £600,000. You can borrow 20% of the purchase price interest-free for the first five years as long as you have at least a 5% deposit. If you live in London, you can borrow up to 40% of the purchase price.

An example of how HTB works:

Cost of home - £200,000

Your deposit – 5% - £10,000

Equity Loan – 20% - £40,000

Mortgage – 75% - £200,000

Am I eligible?

You must be:

· 18 or over

· A first-time buyer

The property must be:

· A new build

· Sold by a Help to Buy registered homebuilder

· The only home you own and live in

Shared ownership

What is shared ownership?

Shared ownership, also known as ‘part buy part rent’, is a type of mortgage that gives first-time buyers the chance to buy a share in a new build property. You can take out a mortgage for the share you own (usually between 25% and 75%), while paying rent on the rest to a housing association. As you’ll only be paying a mortgage on the share you’re buying, the amount needed for a deposit is usually much less than if you were to buy a property outright.

Shared ownership gives lower-income households the opportunity to get on the property ladder at a more affordable cost.

How does it work?

Shared ownership schemes can be seen as a middle ground between owning and renting, with the option to buy a bigger share of your home
at a later date.

With shared ownership, you can choose to increase your share of the property overtime through a process known as ‘staircasing.’ This means that you can keep buying shares of the rented part of your home from the relevant housing association until you own all of it.

Am I eligible?

· You must be at least 18 years old.

· Outside of London your annual household income must be less than £80,000.

· In London, your annual household income must be less than £90,000.

· You cannot own another home. Shared Ownership purchasers are often first time buyers but if you do already own another property (either in the UK or abroad), you must be in the process of selling it.