Am I a first-time buyer?

girlfairy

Me and my partner previously had a mortgage on a shared ownership property, on a 25% share with a really small deposit. We moved after a year back into my parents as the area was horrible and we realised there wasn't much being paid off with how small the share was. Still living with my parents. We're both 22. Are we considered first time buyers?

danielanthony

I would not have thought so as you previously had a house and a mortgage but decided to give them up.

Contemptuous

No, because you're not buying for the first time.

Landofwood

The clue is in the name.

betmunch

when you have been mortgage free for 3 years you may be considered a first time buyer again by a lender.

However for legal purposes you are not.

If youre considering the new FTB ISA you should check what their definition of a FTB is before applying

Good luck

girlfairy

Yes, I know obviously 'the clue is in the name', if we had given up a normal mortgage on a full share of a home then I wouldn't be questioning it.

However, we have never come close to taking out a mortgage on a whole house. We had a mortgage down on a 25% share of the home.. so 3/4 of the house was owned by a housing association whom we paid rent to every month.

So technically we have never bought our own home yet.

Red-Squirrel_2

When you say 'given up a mortgage', do you mean you sold your share of the property?

girlfairy

Yes, we sold our share of the property

d70cw6

yes. yes you are. I'm on my fourth house and consider myself to be a first time buyer. your labels cant restrain me!

kingstreet

It varies from lender to lender.

For some, you can only ever be a FTB once.

For others, it's one FTB out of two, or how long since your last sale/mortgage.

So, no hard and fast answer.

BTW there is one lender now capping at 4.5x for FTBs, so be careful you may not actually WANT to be one in some circumstances!

kkgree1

I've been in a similar situation having previously had a shared ownership property and in my experience we were not classed as first time buyers when buying another home (at 100%).