‘Help to Buy’… a bit of clarity!
Further to our previous post on the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme, we thought it might be worth putting a few words together about the schemes available in Scotland as ‘Help to Buy’ is getting a lot of media coverage lately, especially in the recent budget announcement. As is often the case, the majority of the media coverage has centred around the schemes available to those living in England, and the schemes relevant to Scotland are often merely given a cursory mention in a footnote, or the article simply states “p.s. does not apply in Scotland”.
So, in a bid to help clarify what IS available in Scotland, we’ve put together a brief summary (with a bit of help from the Scottish Government’s website), which is correct as of today. We’ve not gone into great detail on each scheme simply because the links themselves do.
Help to Buy (Scotland) Scheme
The Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme aims to help first-time buyers and existing homeowners to buy a new-build home in Scotland from a participating home builder, and is available on homes up to a value of £400,000. Full details can be found here.
Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) scheme
Three different LIFT shared equity schemes help first-time buyers on low to moderate incomes to own a home.
(1) The Open Market Shared Equity Scheme helps first-time buyers to buy a home on the open market.
(2) The New Supply Shared Equity Scheme helps first-time buyers to buy a new build home from a housing association.
(3) New Supply Shared Equity with Developer Scheme helps first-time buyers to buy a new-build home from a participating home builder.
Full details on the LIFT scheme can be found here.
Shared Ownership
Shared ownership helps a person buy a share of a home and pay an occupancy charge on the remainder to a housing association. Shared Ownership is different from shared equity. Further details here.
The MI New home Scheme
The Scottish Government supports the private sector-led MI New Home scheme which allows lenders to offer mortgages to credit-worthy borrowers in Scotland who want to buy a new-build home from a participating housebuilder, with a maximum value of £250,000. The scheme supports both first-time buyers and existing homeowners. The scheme is anticipated to run until 31 March 2015.
More details here.
UK Government’s Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee scheme
Finally there is the UK-wide Mortgage Guarantee scheme which is a UK Government initiative. Full details here.
We hope this information is helpful however, as a home is usually the biggest purchase anyone will make in their lives, we would always advise obtaining independent financial advice.
