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Help to Buy Equity Loans guide discussion

MSE_Tony
MSE_Tony Posts: 100
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MSE Staff
edited 16 March 2018 at 3:31PM in House buying, renting & selling
Hi all,
We've written a new:


and would love your feedback.

- How did you find the info?
- Was it useful?
- Suggest improvements, share your tips and whether you’ve had a good or bad experience since its launch?

Thanks for your help!

MSE Jo
«1345678

Comments

  • PaulC5
    PaulC5 Posts: 190
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    I feel your a little late to the party giving advice on this and the first sentence if false.


    "The Help to Buy equity loan scheme was launched on 1 April 2013 in a bid to help struggling first-time buyers or people finding it hard to move up the rungs of the property ladder."


    I got my first Help to Buy Equity Loan in 2011 on my first property. I now have another one having sold my first property, paying off the equity loan and buying my second property.


    At the time of selling my first property there wasn't this kind of information about but I'm now fully aware of my options and ways to save on fees in the process that I feel many are unaware of.
  • Thanks for doing this MSE. Very helpful.

    I just wondered if you could provide a bit more detail on the lenders who are happy with dealing with help to buy loans (as well as those who are not, so as not to waste time with them). It's not entirely clear at the moment why those you say are most help to buy friendly are on your list (currently Halifax, Barclays, Newcastle, Skipton and Leeds) have been put there. What criteria have you used here?

    We went with another lender for a two year deal initially that finishes in Oct 18, but are looking at remortgaging options six months ahead to beat any Bank of England interest rate rise in May, so the more information on lenders happy to deal with remortgages with the help to buy component would be great.
  • dhokes
    dhokes Posts: 302
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    Has anyone done the following:

    "- Remortgage to wipe out some or all of the equity loan. This means you'll pay off the equity loan IN FULL but end up with a bigger standard mortgage."

    If so, I would be interested to know the steps required to do such a thing e.g. get a property valuation, contact your help to buy agent etc..
  • kingstreet
    kingstreet Posts: 38,690
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    Target is the only post-sales HTB Agent and you can find your options here;-

    https://www.myfirsthome.org.uk/

    under "I want to..."
    I am a mortgage broker. You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice. Please do not send PMs asking for one-to-one-advice, or representation.
  • kingstreet
    kingstreet Posts: 38,690
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    PaulC5 wrote: »
    I feel your a little late to the party giving advice on this and the first sentence if false.


    "The Help to Buy equity loan scheme was launched on 1 April 2013 in a bid to help struggling first-time buyers or people finding it hard to move up the rungs of the property ladder."


    I got my first Help to Buy Equity Loan in 2011 on my first property. I now have another one having sold my first property, paying off the equity loan and buying my second property.


    At the time of selling my first property there wasn't this kind of information about but I'm now fully aware of my options and ways to save on fees in the process that I feel many are unaware of.
    FirstBuy and HomeBuy Direct were the shared equity options before HTB Equity Loan which started in April 2013 as stated.

    As you can see here;-

    https://www.myfirsthome.org.uk/
    This is to assist you if you have already bought your home through Help to Buy, FirstBuy, HomeBuy Direct, First Time Buyers Initiative, Armed Forces Home Ownership Scheme, or London Wide Initiative.
    I am a mortgage broker. You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice. Please do not send PMs asking for one-to-one-advice, or representation.
  • chanz4
    chanz4 Posts: 10,867
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    £900 plus solicitors charge alone, just to pay the money and request the second charge be removed. You cant just pay the company the 20%
    Don't put your trust into an Experian score - it is not a number any bank will ever use & it is generally a waste of money to purchase it. They are also selling you insurance you dont need.
  • darroch
    darroch Posts: 40
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    You should write a help to buy Scotland guide as there's hardly anything on the internet which covers more than the basics.
  • I've found this guide very useful as my partner and I have have been going through the process of buying our first home using HTB Equity Loan. I thought I'd share a few other things I have found useful during the process. As I'm a numbers guy an illustration showing the relationship between house price/mortgage amount/equity/equity loan i.e. on a £200000 house on day one you'll owe £150000 mortgage and £40000 to HTB with £10000 equity but by using your mortgage calculator tool and over-payment tool you can work out what payments are needed in order to ensure that after 5 years your equity amount will cover the equity loan, I personally found this quite reassuring as we're looking at remortgaging at the end of the 0% term. We also used the Lifetime ISA or LISA to save for our deposit which we found some people didn't think was possible so some mention of that could be useful and lastly there is no mention in the guide as to when the 5 year term begins (which I believe is on completion) which was another question we raised as there was a considerable time between exchange and completion as there often is on new build properties.

    Thank you MSE for all your great advice
  • kingstreet
    kingstreet Posts: 38,690
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    by using your mortgage calculator tool and over-payment tool you can work out what payments are needed in order to ensure that after 5 years your equity amount will cover the equity loan
    How do you take into account increases or reductions in property values which will reflect in the amount you repay?
    I am a mortgage broker. You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice. Please do not send PMs asking for one-to-one-advice, or representation.
  • T2808
    T2808 Posts: 1 Newbie
    Recently applied to Nationwide with a 20% equity loan and a 9% deposit and was calculated as applying for a 88% LTV and declined! Absolutely crazy.... thought the benefit of the equity loan and low deposit was a reduced LTV ratio.

    If that is the case then Nationwide who welcome help to buy applications are making massive mistakes.
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