Help To Buy - Incentives?

Sparx

Fair enough, valid comment.

ethank

You may not get stamp duty as soom HTB Agents consider this as a cashback offer, and therefore not allowed.

dgtazzman

Cashback offers such as stamp duty and contributions towards legal fees are allowed under the scheme, some builders just try to sell them as not being allowed to put people off asking for them.

There might be some Homebuy agents that don't allow it, but our's in the East-Midlands stipulates quite clearly in their documentation that they will allow this kind of incentive, as long as the total value of them is under 5% of the purchase price. Others on the forum from other parts of the country have posted similar information.

Some lenders might also not allow it, can't comment on that, but I know Nationwide and Halifax do. It might have an influence on the valuation of the property though in some cases...

ethank

Nationwide definitely do allow it. However Catalyst (Berkshire, Oxfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and Surrey) did not allow this for us, and the salesperson at the developer reduced the price by the stamp duty amount.

kingstreet

dgtazzman wrote: »

I know Nationwide and Halifax do. It might have an influence on the valuation of the property though in some cases...

Halifax is 1% of 95% of the share being purchased.

So, if you buy for £200k with 20% equity, the incentives could be no more than 1% of the £152,000, or £1,520.

£200,000 gross PP -
£40,000 equity loan
________
£160,000 = 80% share x 95% =

£152,000 x 1% = £1,520.

dgtazzman

Is that cash incentives only with Halifax Kingstreet, or do they also consider incentives like carpets and the like into that 1%. We opted not to continue with Halifax, so never got the full details...

Whittingt0n

Hi sorry if this is not the place for this question, this is my first time in a forum but looking for answers on the HTB scheme.

In brief:
-We are first time buyers
-Developer offered 5% cash back upon completion of sale knowing that the sale was HTB.
-Financial advisor started process for mortgage, and HTB.
-We asked many times about the 5% cash back and was assured by the financial advisor and the developer that we would receive the cash back upon completion.
-We reserved property with £500 and signed for the mortgages and required insurance policies
-Was later told that developer is not allowed to give 5% cash back on help to buy scheme.

We are told that there may be alternative ways for us to receive the 5% cash incentive rather than material incentive but the questions are as such...

Is it actually possible for the developer to give 5% cash incentive either by cash back or other means if the sale is a HTB sale?

What do these other means look like?

Is this 5% cash incentive only redeemable upon completion?

Is there anything else we should know about cash incentives from the developer when using Htb?

Any answers greatly appreciated.