Help to buy

Most people have a dream of owning their own home. But with property prices spiraling skywards over the years, it’s getting harder than ever for anyone to buy their first home or move up the housing ladder.

The Government’s Help to Buy scheme is designed to help you achieve your ambition – with the help of a low deposit, an affordable mortgage and assistance from a HomeBuy agency.

To be eligible for a Help to Buy home, you should:

Be a home buyer looking to buy a new build home
Be able to demonstrate access to savings or funds to pay a deposit of 5% plus the usual cost of moving home which includes legal fees and stamp duty
Have a good credit history
Take out a mortgage with a qualified lender (e.g. a bank or building society)

Now available in Scotland*

Help to Buy (Scotland) allows an eligible buyer to purchase a brand new property, funded by an affordable mortgage and help from the Scottish Government.

Now available in England**

Help to Buy (England) is a product in the Government’s HomeBuy range designed to help buyers in England buy your new home in an affordable way.

Now available in Wales***

Help to Buy (Wales) allows eligible purchasers to buy new-build homes with assistance from the Welsh Government in the form of a shared equity loan.

*Help to Buy (Scotland) is only available on selected homes at selected developments in Scotland up to a value of £200,000. Eligible applicants will be offered an equity stake of up to a maximum of 15% of the full market price. The Scottish Government will hold the second charge on the property. Applicants are required to fund at least 85% of the purchase price by means of a mortgage and any deposit where required. There is no fee charged on the equity stake component. The equity stake is provided by the Homes and Communities Agency and developer as a second charge. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up your repayments on your mortgage. Help to Buy is not available for part-exchange or buy-to-let.

**Help to Buy (England) is only available on selected homes at selected developments in England. Eligible applicants will be offered an equity stake of up to a maximum of 20% of the full market price. The Homes & Communities Agency will hold the second charge on the property. Applicants are required to fund at least 80% of the purchase price by means of a mortgage and any deposit where required. For the first five years there is no fee charged on the equity stake component. At the start of year six a fee is collected of 1.75% of the market value of the property at the time the stake is entered into multiplied by the outstanding percentage under the equity stake, the annual fee of 1.75% will be uplifted by RPI +1% p.a. The equity stake is provided by the Homes and Communities Agency and developer as a second charge. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up your repayments on your mortgage. Help to Buy is not available in Wales.

***Help to Buy (Wales) is only available on selected homes at selected developments in Wales up to a value of £300,000. Eligible applicants will be offered an equity stake of up to a maximum of 20% of the full market price. The Welsh Government will hold the second charge on the property. Applicants are required to fund at least 80% of the purchase price by means of a mortgage and any deposit where required. The maximum you can borrow from HtBW under this scheme is £60,000. There is no minimum amount. Buyers must provide a deposit of a minimum of 5% of the purchase price of the home bought under this scheme. After five years you will be required to pay interest at 1.75% of the market value of your shared equity loan at the time you purchased your property, rising each year after that by the increase (if any) in the Retail Prices Index (RPI) plus 1%. More details are on page 15. The loan itself is repayable after 25 years or on the sale of the property if earlier, or in certain other circumstances. You must pay a monthly management fee of £1 per month from the start of the loan until it is repaid. The total amount payable by you will be the proportion of the market value of your home that was funded by this loan, plus interest and charges. The amount you will have to repay under the loan agreement will depend on the market value of your home when you repay the shared equity loan and the rate of inflation in the meantime. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up your repayments on your mortgage. Help to Buy is not available for part-exchange or buy-to-let.