The various ways to buy your new home
There are a large number of ways to purchase your new home in the UK, with most properties purchased being an outright purchase or otherwise known as an ‘’open market’’ purchase, although with property prices increasing throughout the UK buying outright has become more difficult for an increasing number of the population who find that they can no longer afford to buy open market. For many years now there have been various Government and Local Authority funded option to purchase affordable homes these include options such has Shared Ownership and the Help to Buy equity loan scheme. Purchasing via one of these schemes may mean you are restricted to specialist areas of lending or in otherwords, may mean that not all the banks or building societies in the UK will offer mortgages to aide you in purchasing your new home as the list of lenders you can approach may be restricted. This does not mean that there are no options available to you and indeed the range of mortgage products are different meaning that there is most likely an option available to you for your needs.
Open market purchase
This was historically the most frequent method to purchase a new home. In this instance you would place a deposit down whilst securing your mortgage for the remainder value of the agree purchase price. Most lenders now require a deposit of at least 10-15% on the value of the property with additional employment conditions attached due to Covid 19 i.e. 12 months consecutive employment being an example of one. Ultimately a combination of affordability, increasing house prices and not having job stability has made purchasing property outright much more difficult first-time buyers.
Shared ownership
Purchasing your new home via the shared ownership scheme is (in my opinion) one of the most affordable and effective ways to purchase your new home. You would purchase a percentage of a property value and pay rent on the remaining value of the share (unsold equity) in the home being bought i.e. I purchase a 25% share and pay rent on the remaining 75% share which is held by the Housing Association or Local Authority. I become a shared ownership ‘Leaseholder’. Rents are generally subsidized allowing the purchase to become affordable to first time buyers and in time clients may purchase more shares in their home which is know as ‘Staircasing’. The staircasing process can lead to individuals owning a 100% share of their home.
Staircasing
As a shared ownership leaseholder you can purchase more shares are any point without restriction on the number of times you staircase or percentage you with to staircase up to providing you conduct an affordability assessment should you not be completing a final staircasing purchase up to a 100% share this process is known as “Staircasing”, which allows you to own a greater proportion of your home. The more shares you own in your home, conversely them lower the rents becomes payable to the Housing Association or Local Authority. Once you Staircase to 100% share you become an outright owner and the rent is no longer payable.
You can consult with the Landlord about the staircasing process for more information.
Help to Buy
Help to Buy is a government backed scheme which aims to help first time buyers onto the property market. If you’re a first-time buyer in England, you can apply for a Help to Buy: Equity Loan. This is a loan from the government that you put towards the cost of buying a newly built home. You can borrow a minimum of 5% and up to a maximum of 20% (40% in London) of the full purchase price of a new-build home. You must buy your home from a homebuilder registered for Help to Buy: Equity Loan. The amount you pay for a home depends on where in England you buy it.
Right to Buy
The Right to Buy scheme has seen changes most recently, it is available to those who have been existing secure tenants of a “Right to Buy Landlord”, usually a (Council) Local Authority or other public sector organisation i.e. Housing Association, for a minimum of 5 years.
The scheme allows the tenant(s) to obtain a discount on the current market value of their home. In general, the longer you have been a tenant, the larger the discount entitlement you may be entitled to receive.
We recommend speaking to your landlord about the possible entitlement for a Right to Buy on your home.
Contact Us
Our office hours are 9am-5:00pm Monday to Friday excluding public holidays
Address:
255 Ipswich Road,
Colchester,
Essex
CO4 0EW
Tel 01206 515 858
Email info@hillcrestps.co.uk
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Home Chamber, 255 Ipswich Road, Colchester, Essex, CO4 0EW.
Hillcrest Property Solutions is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our Financial Service Number is 572689. You can this on the
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If you wish to register a complaint, please write to us at the address above or email us at info@hillcrestps.co.uk. A summary of our internal procedures for
the reasonable and prompt handling of complaints is available on request and if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to
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WARNING
THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME. YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS MADE ON YOUR LOAN OR MORTGAGE.
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