Reported by The Guardian
Chancellor fleshes out details of scheme unveiled last month to help 70,000 households on to the property ladder
Nils Pratley: Labour’s modest reheat of help to buy is worth a try
A new £4.7bn government scheme will help 70,000 households on to the property ladder and save first-time buyers “hundreds of pounds a month”, the chancellor, John Healey, said on Wednesday.
More from the original report
Last month, Andy Burnham announced Your First Home , which aims to give a helping hand to first-time buyers in England who do not have access to the “bank of mum and dad”, and Healey revealed in his first budget how the scheme would work, including who would be eligible.
You could argue Your First Home (YFH) is effectively an updated version of the Conservatives’ flagship help to buy scheme, which ended in 2023.
YFH applies to England only and is just for prospective first-time buyers hoping to buy a new-build flat or house.
Those taking part, who buy a home from a participating developer, will be offered a government-backed “equity loan” worth 20% of the purchase price. This will be interest-free for the first five years.
Meanwhile, the minimum deposit the buyer will have to put down will be just 2.5% (the maximum deposit will be 15%). That means buyers will only need to take out a standard repayment mortgage for 77.5% of the property’s value.
Because the equity loan part is initially interest-free, the government says participants “could save hundreds of pounds per month compared with a standard mortgage”.
The government says £4.7bn of funding is available for the scheme over five years.
Customer pre-registration is scheduled to open by the end of December, with customer applications from February 2027, and the first loans issued from April next year.
It is not clear yet whether the devolved governments will launch their own versions of YFH.
Ministers are keen to ensure YFH is not exploited by those who can already afford a home.
There will be a household income cap to exclude those on bigger salaries from taking part. Buyers will need to have a total annual household…