Shared ownership, Help to Buy, New Buy…? What does it all mean?

If you’re looking to buy a new property at the moment you’d be forgiven for being confused about the possible ways of actually purchasing it.

There are a variety of schemes in place at the moment, which are available to assist buyers of new homes. They are all different and, depending on your circumstances, some may be more relevant to you than others.

At Emsleys, we deal with all the schemes regularly and can advise you about them and how they work. We’ve set out a summary of each scheme below:

Shared Ownership

Shared ownership schemes are provided through housing associations. You buy a share of your home (between 25% and 75% of the home’s value) and pay rent on the remaining share.

You’ll need to take out a mortgage to pay for your share of the home’s purchase price.

Shared ownership properties are always leasehold.

Help to Buy

With a Help To Buy equity loan, you buy your newly built home with at least 75% of the cost met by a mortgage and a deposit of at least 5% of the purchase price. The rest is paid for by the government through an equity loan.

Help To Buy equity loans are open to both first-time buyers and home movers on new-build homes worth up to £600,000. You won’t be able to sub-let your home.

NewBuy

NewBuy allows you to buy a newly built home with a deposit of only 5% of the purchase price.

To qualify for NewBuy, your new home must be:

• a new build – being sold for the first time or for the first time in its current form (eg a new flat that used to be part of a house)
• priced £500,000 or less
• your main home (you can’t use NewBuy to buy a second home or a buy-to-let property)
• owned fully by you (you can’t use NewBuy for shared ownership or shared equity purchases)
• built by a builder taking part in the scheme

If you’re looking to buy a new property, we’re always able to advise you about the process and what will work best for you. Contact our Conveyancing team on 0113 264 4414.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/affordable-home-ownership-schemes/newbuy