Help to Buy

microkid

I'm not sure if this the best place to post this so apologises if not!

We are looking to buy our second house, but are slightly low on LTV as we bought our house when prices were at their max before it call crashed.

We are looking at a new build home and using the governments help to buy scheme which was looking good until we were told we would not be eligible as we owned a second property – this sounds a lot better than the reality.

I still have the flat that I had before I met my wife. I rent this out on a buy to let mortgage, however it is not making me any money per month and due to a recent large outlay to repair, update it, has very little equity in it, so it's more of a mill stone! I do have a buyer for it lined up but this won't complete until January 2014.

We don’t want to loose the house we have seen or the buyers for our current house, is there anyway around this? Is it possible transfer ownership of the second property to someone else? Or we stuck with waiting? Or buying without help to buy?

amnblog

The Help to Buy property must be your only property. It is not designed to assist those who will own any other property after purchase.

The rules are explicit in this.

HTB_newbie

When is the new build estimated to complete or is it already complete? My understanding from going through HTB myself (although I could be wrong) is that you are not allowed to have a second property on completion.

Otherwise, is there any way you could sell you BTL earlier? Look for a different buyer for it who is willing to move quicker?

kingstreet

The HTB declaration is that that HTB property will be the only property you own on completion of the new one.

amnblog

It makes sense as the scheme is designed to put people on the property ladder.

Options to hold other property in any form would leave the system open to extensive abuse.

As it is I suspect there are large numbers of families switching current ownership between siblings and parents to free someone up to access the scheme.