London Help to Buy- worth doing?

marksoton

Whilst i have been tongue and cheek i honestly don't think given your stipulations your chosen areas are viable.

You really are going to have to go further afield.

After 10 years living and working in London not once did it cross my mind to buy. At most i house shared, and that was living in Herne Hill whilst working in Victoria.

Petite_Anglaise

I think for now we are going to stick with Bromley/Beckenham as a 2 bed flat on the open market is just about do-able on our budget, hopefully with some help from our families towards the deposit.

My initial question was about the HTB London scheme which is aimed at helping FTBs like us get going...but from what we've seen, its completely out of our reach which is ironic as it's a scheme meant to help FTBs.

I'd accepted that with HTB you had v little choice in where it was located i.e. depends on where the development is situated.

The scheme seems pretty wild as you are getting a 40% loan from the government- start paying fees/interest after 5 years.
But as it's only valid with new build properties, it's almost as if the loan is covering the extra premium of buying a new build.
You then come up with the 5% deposit & get a 55% mortgage.
Well, that's the theory at least.

Now its confirmed for me that we need to crack on with buying what we can afford on the open market.

Petite_Anglaise

It's horses for courses.

We would like to buy and start paying a mortgage instead of £££ in rent that does not go towards anything long term.

Also, some relative security once our child starts school.