New Help to Buy scheme now open for applications!

Great news for First Time Buyers and New Home Purchasers in England this week.

As of the 16th December, in what you might call an early Christmas pressie, the Government released their new Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme, which basically means great news for buyers struggling to get their savings up to a 10% deposit.

This is in replacement of the current scheme, which has helped almost 300,000 buyers to find their perfect pad and runs until March 2023!!

In simple terms, if you can show you have saved a 5% deposit, so that is 5% of the value of the property you intend to purchase, and you are eligible, which we will cover some more later, the Government will provide a low interest loan of 20% of the house price (or up to 40% if you're in London), which in practice will then give you a 25% deposit with your lender covering the remaining balance with a mortgage.

The loan is interest free too, for the first five years, and after that a monthly interest fee of just 1.75% will apply. Please note though, that this will increase each year in April.

To be eligible to take up this scheme, you will need to be a first-time buyer and have no previous history of home ownership, this also includes your partner, and ownership extends to residential land and property in the UK or overseas. You need to be buying a new home too and it must be through an approved developer who is registered with the scheme.

Further conditions include your ability to demonstrate that you have the 5% deposit and that you have means of keeping up with monthly payments and your new home must also be your permanent residence.

Finally, to stop everyone running out and buying a million-pound mansion, there are price caps in place… keeping it as local as possible, in the South East, the scheme is capped at a maximum purchase price of £437,500.

For more information, visit the Government website by clicking this link: https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/equity-loan/equity-loans/