Help to buy - can we put down more than 5%

theirmum

So we are looking at buying a new build with the help to buy scheme. Our problem is we can "only" get a £271,000 mortgage and the house we want is £410,000 so government 20% would be £82,000 leaving a shortful of £57,000 (which we have) but its more like 14% rather than 5%. So my question is can we put more than the 5% down and will the government still lead up the 20% if we give more?

libf

Yes. I'm putting down 10% because my student loan at my salary means I can't get the mortgage I need with 5%.

The maximum is about 40-45%, cant remember exactly, but 14% is fine.

theirmum

So your putting 10% and the government is leading you 20%? I just want to make absolutely sure because I spoke to the Barclays mortgage adviser and she seem to think the deposit was 25% total so if i put 10% then they put 15% but I didnt feel like she knew what she was talking about!!

libf

Yep. House is £242995, Help to Buy have approved a 20% loan (~£50k) and my deposit is 10%. Application currently in with nationwide for £170k mortgage.

Might be better to get a broker who deals with help to buy rather than applying direct.

kingstreet

Yep. As min mortgage is 25%, with a 20% equity loan you could put down a deposit of as much as 55%.

Be careful though. Some lenders limit the deposit to a maximum below that - eg NatWest 20%.