Mortgage Advice - Homebuy Direct

Selwsm

Hi,

Id appreciate any advice anyone can give me!

I am a first time buyer and i signed up for the FirstBuy scheme (80% mortgage/20% equity loan) to help me get on the property ladder.

a new development in my area is being built and they have a few properties left on the homebuy scheme (70% mortgage/30% equity loan). They say that the homebuy 70/30 split scheme is finished and these are the last properties on this scheme and going forward the new properties will only be available under firstbuy 80/20 split - which is obvioulsy more of a deposit and the anticipated rise in house prices when these ones are built.

I have put a holding reservation on an apartment but i want to know if anyone knows of any other schemes/deals (i.e where developers may pay a deposit/slash the price etc for a first time buyer with no change and a small deposit (approx £5k).

I have about 10 days before my reservation deposit is banked. i am going to see an idependant financial advisor tomorrow, but all the info on mortgages is confusing so i would like all the help i can get!

If anyone has any advice for a single, full time employed woman with a small deposit and good credit history - id be grateful!

thanks

sarah

poppy10_2

FirstBuy is a scam, designed to aid housebuilders rather than buyers - avoid.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Selwsm wrote: »

i am going to see an idependant financial advisor tomorrow, but all the info on mortgages is confusing so i would like all the help i can get!

Good idea to see an IFA, and I'd also suggest speaking to a solicitor to understand your liabilities under the scheme before committing to a deposit.

First Buy can be immensely helpful for helping people get their first property, but there are also some limitations, so make sure you know all the details and that it's the right thing for you, and house for you, over the long term.

If you think it's likely your circumstances may change in the next few years and you might need to move, I'd be very cautious. Newbuilds can be hard to resell in this market.

brit1234

As others have said Firstbuy is a complete scam. You overpay, get put into negative equity and face a time bomb in payments once the loan payments come into play on top of your mortgage. This extra cost could be extremely high especially as interest rates are likely to be a lot higher then.

Read the main shared equity thread debate with pros and cons before you go any further so you are most informed. Even Hamish above would agree to read as much as possible. Link below:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3177256

Have a cup of tea, spare hour and some biscuits. Its a bit of a read but fair summary of all issues where it has gone wrong or could work.

Good luck.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

brit1234 wrote: »

Read the main shared equity thread debate with pros and cons before you go any further so you are most informed. Even Hamish above would agree to read as much as possible. .

I would indeed.

But I would also be very sceptical of a thread set up by those with a vested interest in seeing a house price crash which tries to portray the worst examples of shared ownership as normal, and shared ownership as a scam, when they're clearly not.

Web forums like these attract people with problems, it's sort of their very reason for existence. But don't think for one second that these horror stories whether it be for renters, landlords, debt problems, etc, are typical. The vast majority of people using any service or product get along just fine and are very happy. But of course they don't have the need to find a web forum looking for advice about their problems, so we never hear about it.

Besides, the OP is not looking at shared ownership, ie, owning half a house and paying rent to a HA for the other half.

But rather First Buy, which is a totally different beast using government money for a loan to cover part of the deposit requirement.

poppy10_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Besides, the OP is not looking at shared ownership, ie, owning half a house and paying rent to a HA for the other half.

But rather First Buy, which is a totally different beast using government money for a loan to cover part of the deposit requirement.

FirstBuy is a shared equity scheme. It's a different type of scam to the shared ownership schemes, and not quite as bad, but a scam nonetheless.