Help to buy scheme

FelinePrincess

I feel your pain. I am finally in a position (after many years of longing!) to buy, with a MIP and a good deposit. My budget is quite small, and I don't want to rush into buying a house thats not right for me, so I was hoping to spend some time looking till I found something reasonably priced that I liked - but now I'm realising that if I wait for long my options are probably going to be even more limited as prices shoot up - feels like a lose-lose situation

DRiddle

It really is a frustrating situation. I understand that it's obviously as scheme aimed at not helping the buyer. But if the house prices hadn't suddenly have shot up (which is a result of the agents telling people that is what their house is now worth) then first time buyers could really have benefited from the scheme.

In addition there are quite a few new developments around BUT they are all for 4 or 5 bedroom houses £200k or more. How many first time buyers can afford that? It is no surprise that the oldest and fully completed of these developments has only sold 2 houses on a plot of about 10. The rest have remained vacant for nearly 3 years. Why are these developments being allowed past the proposal phase?First time buyers aren't looking for 5 bedroom houses and what you'll find in the ones that have sold is a retired couple! What a huge waste of resources and space!

kingstreet

IMHO momentum started to pick up last year without HTB. As the economy appeared to start to improve, all the pent-up demand of the last five years started to move the market in some areas.

You can blame Government schemes if you like, but there is a shortage of housing in many areas and demand is driving prices up. In other areas, this is not happening. Why is the Government scheme not causing these areas to boom, like the others?

Excess supply.

TBH, the HTB scheme will not provide mortgages for those who;-

can't afford it
have no deposit
have credit problems

and those who couldn't have got a 95% mortgage last September before HTB was launched, will not be able to get one now.