FTB, HomeBuy, Mortgages = confused!

mc2705

Hi

I am currently looking into buying a flat/house and am looking for advice or information on what my options actually are.

I am currently earning around £25,000 pa and I think I can get a mortgage of around 4x that amount. However I don’t have a huge deposit so am going to be looking at a maximum mortgage of between £70k-£80k as I have around £10k in savings but will be keeping £2-3k for fees etc.

Now there are not many properties around for that sort of money so I am looking at the part buy schemes (Homebuy) and have registered with South West homes.

Do most mortgage companies (either banks or building societies) allow 90% LTV on a part buy? Somebody I was speaking to is convinced that most companies will not touch part ownership without an enormous deposit or ridiculous interest rates. Is this true?

I am also interested in making overpayments when I am able to (after reading the mortgage free wannabe boards!). Am I likely to have difficulty finding a mortgage that allows overpayments? I am thinking of paying an extra £100 or so every couple of months and maybe the odd (small!) lump sum in, if and when I get a bonus.

I am looking to buy on my own but my girlfriend will be living with me. She is currently paying an IVA after running up huge debts in the past (before I met her!). Silly girl but she will be out of it in a year or so.

She will be contributing towards costs but am I right in assuming that I should not mention her at all? I was thinking I could use her £300 per month contribution towards getting a better deal on a mortgage (as additional income), but wouldn’t her IVA status count against me?

Any tips, tricks or advice would be gratefully received as I am starting to confuse myself!

mc2705

Does anybody know about any of my queries?

xxxpaulaxxx

Hi im new here so i'll try and not make this complicated! hope it helps!
Me and my partner bought out apartment under the FTBI (First time buyer initiave) about 16 months ago. We had to get in touch with our local homebuy: homebuy.co.uk and ask what housing schemes had the deal, it happened that we found an apartment on a Barratt estate which was valued at £120,000.
As we could only afford £60,000 on a mortgage the government agreed to pay the rest of the money and after three years we would start paying 1% over the year, 2% in the 2nd year and then 3% for the rest of the years. When we sell the apartment the goverment then get back whatever percentgage they have left in the property? its explained better in this booklet thats on the homebuy site under FTBI but i do know if you can afford say 80% of the property the government will then pay just the 20%. Also there is a way to staircase on your payments so if you do have extra money you can put that towards the mortgage.
It is classed as 100% ownership and unlike some schemes there is no rent to pay.
Also when we got our apartment we only had to put a £100 deposit down (most new housing developments will have similar schemes) and pay our legal fees ourselves so overall it was a really good scheme.
Concerning your girlfriend, a solicitor will be dealing on your behalf so they'll probably advise you on whats best, it sounds like your both in a good situation to start out though!
hope this helps if you have any other questions, i'll try and answer them!