A two year extension to the Scottish Government's hugely successful ‘Help to Buy’ scheme has been announced, with an additional £100M allocated to help around 4,000 households purchase a new build home.
Earlier this week, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart made the announcement, commenting, “Housing is about more than bricks and mortar – we want to provide safe, warm homes, help create a fairer Scotland, and preserve a diverse and more resilient construction sector.”
With funding already in place for 2018/19, the announcement extends the scheme through to the end of March 2021. Crucially, the price cap of £200K will remain.
The new funding will be split evenly between the two additional years, with £50M for 2019/20 and £50M for 2020/21. The budget has been separated in each year with £32M for the main fund and £18M ring-fenced to give smaller scale home builders more confidence to bring forward developments. The budget has been set to meet demand and HFS will continue to work with the Scottish Government and UK Finance to monitor spend to maximise the opportunity for builders and buyers.
So, what does this mean for anyone contemplating the purchase of a Stephen home? In a nutshell, if you are hoping to move this year, and the Stephen home of your choice is less than £200,000, the property of your dreams could be more affordable than you thought.
Through ‘Help to Buy, aspiring home owners, not just first time buyers, could purchase a new build home, putting down a deposit of as little as 5% of the selling price, combined with a mortgage of up to 80% of the value of the property. So you pay just 85% of the property price now, and the remaining 15% is provided by the Scottish Government equity loan. Because it’s interest-free for the term of the loan, your deposit could not only be slashed, but your mortgage repayments too. What’s more. it’s not a shared ownership scheme – you will own 100% of your home.
And the caveats? Well, besides the recent time extension, the home must also be the buyer’s only residence and cannot apply to part-exchange or buy-to-let.
And what can we offer you through this scheme?
You’ll be delighted to hear that homes within some of our most sought-after developments are ‘Help to Buy’ friendly. Our imminent release at West Woodlands, Perth of two bedroom apartments and two and three bedroom semi-detached villas will be priced below £200,000 and, as such, meet the qualifying criteria. Furthermore, our mailing list for West Woodlands now has over 300 names – a record-breaker for us. If you would like to be added, don’t delay! – email sales@stephen.co.uk.
Meanwhile, at Tornagrain, which is located between Nairn and Inverness, we have two bedroom terraced villas priced from £163,000 and two bed apartments priced from £141,500 – again, we would anticipate that these properties will appeal to those looking for a little assistance to make their move on the property ladder.
To ensure that you don’t miss out, take a look at our website or give us a call. It’s then just a case of consulting an independent financial advisor and getting the application process moving.
For more information, please contact our Sales office on (01738) 620721, email sales@stephen.co.uk.
