Homebuy Direct

I think you have the responses that I would have expected to be made on this forum,

For what its worth if you are years away from saving a deposit then I would read through the scheme conditions carefully. After 5 years you will start to pay a charge on the equity that you don't own and that will go up each year so you really need to think at the outset about how you pay back the part which you don't own (which is the intention behind Homebuy charging as they don't want to be lending to you over the full term).

There are numerous restrictions which have been highlighted in some recent threads if you search for 'Homebuy Direct', basically if you're planning to move quickly or think you might want to let then forget it: the scheme is intended to get you in a property you want to stay in but primarily to help out the developers who couldn't sell all their properties about 2 years ago when all the lending got tightened up.

You can expect to have your financial history checked and bank statements thoroughly so make sure these are ready as its the Homebuy Agent and the Mortgage Lender that will check.

There are only a handful of lenders on the scheme so not many different mortgage products to choose.

On the plus side, you may pay less than your current rent outlay, obviously you will be in a property, there is a certain amount of protection from negative equity that you wouldn't get from buying outright.

There are a range of schemes out there from shared equity, shared ownership and whether it is developer led or government led so be sure when you get feedback that the poster is commenting on Homebuy Direct and not anything else.