LIFT scheme Scotland

claire2711

We are hopefully applying for this soon as we need a bigger place.

Does anyone know what the minimum deposit they'll accept is? Unsure if we'll be able to get through the prcess, we have £1000, maybe £2000 at the time. My partner works FT, I am a stay at home mum and we have a FTworking guarantor if needed. Any help at all would be amazing x

chib

Hi Claire,

There is no minimum deposit, we're buying a house at the moment with no deposit. For our £90K house, we have a mortgage for £75K and £15K from the lift scheme.

Regards, Chib.

claire2711

Hi chib, thanks for replying! That is very reassuring. My fingers are majorly crossed for our bank appointment now! Just hope the fact that I'm not working doesn't count against us. Eek

chib

No problem Claire, when we found out about the scheme I wasn't successful in finding anyone who went ahead with it - so I'm happy to share what I know with others.

Some things to be aware of are that most lenders will look for a 5% deposit along with the scheme - you may already know this. However, Skipton Building Society don't. (Our IFA advised us of this, and the lawyer was aware of it also!) The rates aren't great, but with a lack of deposit we didn't have much of a choice.

The second thing, and it's a biggy is that there are price ceilings for certain areas and property sizes - it's all online (See here) as we are looking at a 4-Apt in Renfrewshire the maximum we can offer on a property is £90K (That is irrelevant of what a lender will give us, or what stake we take from the scheme) - we were lucky to find a property at this price and if out offer was refused we may have considered not using the scheme.