First Time Property Buyers in Brighton & Hove

By: Chris Johnson

  Calling First Time Buyers!…

As a first time buyer, getting your foot on the property ladder has never been tougher, with the avergae mortgage agreement requiring a massive 30% deposit. On a £150,000 home that is a lump sum of £45,000. There are not many people starting out in property that can afford to save that! So what do you do?

You can of course rent a property, which is a great shorter term solution, but the cost of renting is considerable and doesnt usually leave an awful lot of money left at the end of the month to save towards a deposit on your own home.

There are several new initiatives that housing developers and associations have implemented to help you on your way:

Try Before You Buy

You get to rent a home for a year before you decide if you want to buy or not. If you do want to buy the home, the rent you have paid is used as a deposit. Effectively, you will have lived rent free for a year! If you decide not to buy, well, you have lived in a lovely new home for a year! 

Rent To Buy

This is a really popular scheme. It offers you the chance to rent a new build home at approximately 80% of the market value rental for between three and five years. Enabling you to save the extra as a deposit. You can then purchase the property in whole or in part. If you buy a share in your home, you pay rent on the remaining protion and can buy further shares until you own 100% and the property is yours.

Homebuy Direct

This is a Government backed scheme, providing an interest free ‘equity loan’ for five years, up to 30% of the property value. At the end of the five year term, there is a fee to pay, but the loan can be repaid before then. The loan amount is to be used as a deposit against on property. Not all lenders will accept this loan as a deposit, so please enquire first.

There are many variations on the above schemes and different developers and housing associations will have their own offering. A word of advice is to look at all the terms and conditions very carefully. There may be clauses or conditions that could mean, if you choose not to buy your property at the end of the ‘Rent TO Buy’ term, your tenancy will not automatically be renewed. Just be aware of the ros and cons!

Check with your local brighton & hove estate agents for more information

About the Author

Working for a sucessful family owned Estate Agent And Letting Agents based on the south coast of the UK in Brighton and Hove Sussex. Callaways Estate Agent and Letting Agents are proud to have earned local and national status through winning the Daily Mail Newspaper’s Estate Agent of the year.

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