Help to Buy FAQs

Help to Buy is a government scheme that provides first time buyers with an equity loan in addition to your mortgage, that’s interest free for the first 5 years. If you are able to put down a 5% deposit and take out a mortgage of 75%, Help to Buy will provide you with up to 20% Help to Buy: Equity Loan outside of London, subject to eligibility terms and conditions. Within London, the scheme still requires a 5% deposit on the property but you will be provided with up to 40% Help to Buy: Equity Loan, subject to eligibility terms and conditions, leaving you with just 55% of the value of the property to obtain a mortgage for.

If you are looking to buy a home in London with Help to Buy: Equity Loan, you will still need a minimum 5% deposit however you may only need to raise a mortgage for 55% of the value, with the remaining 40% being the Help to Buy: Equity Loan, subject to eligibility terms and conditions. Outside of London, you will need a 5% deposit, 75% mortgage and receive up to a 20% Help to Buy: Equity Loan and the property purchase caps are lower than that of the London region, depending on where you want to live.

From April 1st 2021, the property purchase caps of Help to Buy: Equity Loan will be £600,000 in London, the highest limit in the country, to reflect the increased house prices in this area.

Both in London and elsewhere you will pay £1 management fee a month in the first 5 years and then during year 6 the Help to Buy: Equity Loan will have a 1.75% interest rate, rising by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), plus 2% each April. This must be paid back within 25 years, when you pay off your mortgage or on sale of the home, whichever comes first.

Prior to April 2021, the requirements were simply that the home must be a new property and the value cannot exceed £600,000. From April 1st 2021, each region across the UK now has its own value limit when it comes to the scheme. In London, the value limit still stays at £600,000 but in various locations across the UK the maximum property price differs. The scheme is offered on a variety of new homes from apartments to houses, regardless of location and number of bedrooms, as long as the property price is below the value threshold for that area. Help to Buy: Equity Loan is available on any new build home that meets the above criteria and the developer selling the home has funding available to offer the equity loan, rather than on specific plots like shared ownership.

While London remains at the original limit of £600,000, the value limits that allow you to access Help to Buy: Equity Loan will change from 1st April 2021.

Yes, Help to Buy is only available on new build properties and developments.

No, if you can afford to buy the home with a smaller loan borrowed then you are able to do so. You will need to borrow a minimum 5% Help to Buy: Equity Loan to be eligible for the scheme.

Unfortunately no. The scheme is available to help people buy a new home who could not have afforded to do so otherwise, therefore the home you buy must be lived in by you.

If, for example, a friend moves in the spare room, as long as there is no formal rental contract in place and you can afford to buy the home without their additional income of rent, this would usually be ok.

No, Help to Buy and shared ownership are two different schemes that cannot be combined.

No, Help to Buy: Equity Loan is designed to assist those to buy a new home that could not have afforded to do so otherwise, therefore cannot be used for Buy to Let purposes.

While previous guidelines allowed you to have previously owned a home to take advantage of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan, from 1st April 2021, you must be a first time buyer and have not owned a property previously. This also applies if you are buying the property with someone else; both of you must qualify as first time buyers to obtain the Help to Buy: Equity Loan.

Unfortunately not. If or when you want to buy a new home in the future, your existing Help to Buy: Equity Loan will be paid off via the sale of the property or at the end of the mortgage period- whichever comes first. While previously you may have been able to apply for a new loan upon buying a new property under the scheme, this is no longer possible as the criteria for the Help to Buy: Equity Loan from 1st April 2021 now requires you to be a first time buyer. This is to ensure that those who would most benefit from the loan get top priority.

The minimum deposit required to buy with Help to Buy: Equity Loan is 5% of the full market value, however if you have more to put towards your purchase, you could take out a smaller mortgage, or borrow a smaller Help to Buy: Equity Loan.

With Help to Buy you must take a minimum mortgage of 25% of the value of the home. This is because the Help to Buy: Equity Loan you borrow must sit as a ‘second charge’ on the property, therefore a mortgage must sit as a ‘first charge’.

Unlike Shared Ownership, you will need to cover the Stamp Duty costs at purchase, as well as other standard purchasing fees such as mortgage arrangement costs, solicitors fees and valuation fees. However it’s important to remember that the Stamp Duty Holiday is now running until the end of June 2021, so you will not have to pay Stamp Duty until this deadline if you are a first time buyer and the property you are purchasing is less than £500,000, anywhere in the country, as long as your purchase completes by this date.

Ongoing monthly costs will include utility bills, Council Tax and TV license for example, and depending on the home you buy, you may have monthly service charges.

Look out for the Help to Buy logo! You’ll often see it on new build developments and this is a sure way to know if the scheme is available. Online, check out developer websites or portals like Keaze to check out which developments are offering Help to Buy: Equity Loan.

The Help to Buy: Equity Loan is interest free for the first 5 years. As of year 6, an interest rate of 1.75% plus RPI at the time will be charged and you will need to pay this on a monthly basis. The interest you pay will be based on the value of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan you borrowed at the time of buying your home.

You will need to consider and plan for the additional monthly costs, alongside your mortgage and any potential service charges, and the post-sales agent will contact you with a few months notice before the interest needs to be paid. While you don’t pay back the Help to Buy: Equity Loan monthly, it can be paid through a minimum of 10% installments or in full if and when you have the funds such as upon selling.

Unlike Shared Ownership, no company or organisation owns the 20% (40% in London) that you didn’t buy with a deposit and mortgage, therefore you will need to sell your home via a more traditional route of an estate agent.

The Help to Buy: Equity Loan is interest free for the first 5 years, however you will typically have 25 years (or for however many years you took out your mortgage for, up to a maximum of 25 years) to pay back the loan.

For example, if you took out a mortgage term of 25 years, you will have 25 years to pay back the Help to Buy: Equity Loan. If your mortgage is to be paid off within 20 years, you will have just 20 years to pay back the Help to Buy: Equity Loan, however if you borrow your mortgage over 30 years, you will have the maximum period of 25 years to pay back, or ‘redeem’ the Help to Buy: Equity Loan.

The Help to Buy: Equity Loan can be paid back in full either on sale of the property, or in ‘chunks’ of 10% at a time. You cannot pay off part of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan monthly, for example, as you would with a credit card.

Fees will be applicable but the post-sales agent will provide information on this.

Help to Buy: Equity Loan enables you to borrow a percentage of the value of a new home, not a specific monetary amount, therefore if the value of the home has increased when you come to redeem part of all of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan, you will pay back the same percentage but based on the current value.

For example, if you buy a new home for £300,000, you will borrow a 20% Help to Buy: Equity Loan of £60,000. If the value increases to £350,000 when you come to pay the Help to Buy: Equity Loan back, you will be paying back £70,000, however the 80% of the financial contribution you put towards the home via a deposit and mortgage will still benefit from the increase in equity:

80% contribution of £300,000 = £240,000

80% contribution of £350,000 = £280,000

Yes! If you can afford to pay back, or redeem, the loan with the 5 year interest-free period, you are able to do this.