Government Schemes to Help You on to The Property Ladder

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Help to Buy Shared Ownership

Help to Buy Armed Forces

Bonus Scheme: Lifetime ISA

Home Buying Mortgage Advice

Help to Buy was introduced in the 2010’s, off the back of the UK government’ previous FirstBuy Scheme. With a series of pre-existing and new schemes placed under that banner, it was designed to help first time buyers get onto the property ladder.

Over the years we have seen schemes under this banner disappear, whilst others have carried on without that branding. The most popular and well-known of these was the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme, which was closed to new applicants towards the end of 2022.

What this means is that first time buyers are no longer able to use a Help to Buy or anywhere in the UK, though this doesn’t necessarily mean that support for home buyers has ended. There are still a variety of schemes that can help to buy!

Types of Home Buying Schemes:

Help to Buy Shared Ownership

The Shared Ownership Scheme was brought into the world as a method of allowing applicants to take out a mortgage on a percentage of a property they’ve been looking to buy, then paying back the remaining percentage as monthly rent payments.

Generally speaking we find that the percentage of the property that goes in your name as a homeowner will be between 25-75%, though depending on the property you’re purchasing, this can possibly be 10%.

The remaining percentage will most likely be owned by either your local housing association or council, though there are other organisations who can be involved.

Shared ownership works in a way that means you’ll be paying a monthly rent to your provider (landlord), as well as monthly mortgage repayments on the percentage that you purchased.

With this government scheme, your property will be leasehold. Leasehold properties usually have ground rent and service charges that will be billed monthly. Irrespective of the percentage of the property that you own, you will be liable for 100% of these monthly charges.

Further down the line, you may have the option to buy more shares, reducing how much you pay in rent. This is called “staircasing”.

You will be able to purchase either a new build home, a shared ownership resale home, or a home for specific needs, say if you have a long-term disability.

Click to read more about the Shared Ownership Scheme.

Forces Help to Buy

The government introduced theForces Help to Buy Scheme way back in 2014, coming off the back of the success of the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme.

This scheme was reminiscent in concept, though had a stronger focus on helping out members of the United Kingdom armed forces in their bid to find their footing on the property ladder.

If you fall into the specific criteria for this scheme, you have a fantastic tool at your disposal ahead of your mortgage.

In big news too, the government chose to extend the deadline date of the Forces Help to Buy Scheme, meaning it gets to stick around now until December 2022!

We personally would love for this to stay around as long as possible, as the scheme is an incredibly helpful method for existing armed forces members to receive a much needed financial boost that will see them onto the property ladder.

Click here to read more about the Forces Help to Buy Scheme.

Bonus Scheme: Lifetime ISA

The Lifetime ISA tends to be a scheme that gets left out of the conversation when it comes to helpful ways to get onto the property ladder.

Whilst it may not be the most suitable scheme for everyone to use, it’s still quite handy to make sure that you have some initial knowledge on it.

This is because if you’re a first time buyer, it could end up being a very useful financial option for saving towards the costs of home buying.

A Lifetime ISA, if we boil it down to basics, is a savings account in which you can deposit funds to sit and grow, free from tax.

The government will also give a boost to your savings by an further 25%. This means that if you are able to meet £4,000 maximum yearly amount, you could be left with quite a handy little £1,000 bonus.

There is specific criteria that you will have to meet in order for you to make use of the Lifetime ISA Scheme.

Click to read more about a Lifetime ISA.