About Help to Buy schemes

Help to Buy schemes are run by the government. They are designed to make it more affordable for people to own their own homes. As a Help to Buy agent, we help to deliver two separate schemes:

• Help to Buy: Equity Loan
• Help to Buy: Shared Ownership

About Help to Buy: Equity Loan

Help to Buy: Equity Loan is a government scheme that allows you to borrow a low-interest loan to put towards the cost of purchasing a newly build home.

The equity loan is for the value of up to 20% of the purchase price for homes that are outside of London. For homes inside London, the equity loan is up to 40% of the purchase price.

You add the equity loan to the deposit you have saved and to the amount you need to borrow on a repayment mortgage. Together these cover the total cost of buying your newly built home.

About Help to Buy: Shared Ownership

Help to Buy: Shared Ownership offers those who can’t afford to buy a home through a traditional mortgage, the opportunity to buy a share of it. This can be between 25%-75% of the home’s value.

You will pay rent, to cover the percentage of the property that you do not own. The more of the property you have a share in, the lower your rental payments will be.

Some shared ownership products are designed for specific groups of people:

• Home ownership for people with long-term disabilities(HOLD)
• Older people's shared ownership (OPSO)
• Rent to Buy (offering homes with rents that approximately 20% cheaper than similar properties on the open market – to help you save for a deposit to purchase a home in the future).

Please remember, your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or other loans secured against it.