Putting our homeowners first, and always first

We understand that buying your first home is an exciting time, but that there’s also a lot to think about. With so many important things to consider, such as finding the right property, securing a mortgage and all the legal paperwork involved, at times it can feel quite daunting.

Throughout the process of buying your Blewbury Home, our expert customer services team are on hand to help and offer you friendly advice as and when you need it.   So, if you have questions don’t be afraid to ask!

5% and 10% deposit mortgages:

Many lenders do offer these, and subject to you meeting the criteria, they can be a very useful option to enable buyers who might otherwise struggle to save for a larger deposit.

Family Assistance Mortgages:  

These have recently been introduced by a few lenders who recognise that whilst parents or other family member may wish to help first time buyers get on the ladder, not everyone can afford to give away thousands of pounds in order to do so. Therefore, rather than gifting you the deposit, it may be that your parents or another family member are able to loan you the money you need for a period of time, perhaps three to five years. Family Assistance Mortgages enable you to borrow the money for your deposit, by stipulating that whoever is lending you the money lodges their savings with the lender as part of the terms of your mortgage.  They then get their savings back with interest at the end of the term, providing you keep up your monthly payments for the duration of the time you’re borrowing the money.

There are a few lenders who currently offer this type of mortgage; your advisor can talk you through the differences in rates and fees and which product may be suitable for your individual circumstances.

Help To Buy:

The government introduced a number of different Help To Buy schemes in 2013, all aimed to help get you to where you want to be on the property ladder.

We’ve included a brief overview of the most popular scheme below, but for more information on all of the various Help To Buy schemes available please visit the Help To Buy website.

Help To Buy Equity Loan:

This is only available for new build schemes, such as Blewbury Homes properties.  This scheme enables you to purchase a property by contributing 5% deposit and then borrow up to 20% of the value of the property from the Government, which is interest free for the first five years of the loan. You then raise up to a 75% percent mortgage to cover the rest of the amount that you need to purchase the property, which helps to make it more affordable.

The reason this is called an ‘equity loan’ scheme is because you’ve borrowed a percentage of the value (or equity) of the property. This means that if the property you’ve purchased through the scheme increases in value over time, then you will have to repay the percentage you’ve borrowed of the new value, rather than the actual amount you borrowed in the first place. If the property decreases over time, then you’ll pay a decreased percentage.  You’ll need to repay the amount you owe the Government either at the end of your mortgage term or when you sell the property. In the meantime, after year five, you start paying interest on the amount that you owe the Government on your Equity Loan. However, you can repay the Equity Loan at any point before then to avoid paying interest on it.

The Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme is currently available to both First Time Buyers and existing or previous homeowners.  So, if you’re buying a Blewbury Home with someone else and only one of you is a First Time Buyer, don’t worry; providing you both meet the criteria you’ll still be able to use this particular scheme.

There is also a specific Equity Loan scheme for those buying in London, which means that you can borrow up to 40% of a property worth up to £600,000, subject to meeting criteria. You can find out more about this particular option on the government help to buy website.

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