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Topic: Help to buy scheme  (Read 2697 times)

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Help to buy scheme
« on: August 16, 2016, 07:49:48 PM »
Has anybody used this? My husband and I are saving for a house, but this keeps coming up. We have an appointment Saturday with one developer (there are a ton of new developments going up around us), which we hope to find out more info. I realize I won't be able to apply for it since I am not on ILR/BC.

Is it worth using help to buy? Or is it more or less a trap? It really makes moving now with a lower deposit seem attractive. We're currently in a decent one bed flat, but crummy area. Only here because it's cheap and we were trying to save. But I hate it, you can see drug deals going on in the car park out back etc. The building itself has security entrance so once inside its fine.


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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2016, 08:42:44 PM »
Certain help to buy schemes are great, the ISA where you put money in and the government adds in extra money is great! I think they add £20 for every £100 you deposit. So a pretty good way to build a deposit.

Just don't go for anything where you share the ownership with the council. I've heard of people having bad things happen with that one...
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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2016, 09:27:41 PM »
I work for a housing association and we do all the help to buy for the North West. When I first started with the company I actually was doing the help to buy applications.

It is simple, you come up with 5% deposit, you get a mortgage for 75%, and help to buy covers the other 20%. It had to be a registered help to buy new build. I can't remember if your income can still be used, but I can ask my friend who still work there if you want. You have 25 years, or until you are 75 to pay back the help to buy loan. The only 'catch'is the payment either needs to be in full, or 50% of the loan. You cannot pay it of monthly.

Shared ownership with help to buy is ok, with the council is different, but with help to buy it is simple. The process is the same with deposit and mortgage, but the percentage are based on the percentage you own (50%, 80% etc). The difference is you can buy back shares that help to buy owns (I believe in lots of 10%, but might be 5%) do if you start with 60%, you can buy a block of 10%, then owning 70%. You can staircase, until you own it outright, or keep it shared if you want. Again I can get exact info if needed. The only catch with shared ownership is you do all maintenance and repairs and you pay rent on the shares you don't own.

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« Last Edit: August 18, 2016, 09:29:28 PM by JennyEye »


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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2016, 11:21:19 AM »
I work for a housing association and we do all the help to buy for the North West. When I first started with the company I actually was doing the help to buy applications.

It is simple, you come up with 5% deposit, you get a mortgage for 75%, and help to buy covers the other 20%. It had to be a registered help to buy new build. I can't remember if your income can still be used, but I can ask my friend who still work there if you want. You have 25 years, or until you are 75 to pay back the help to buy loan. The only 'catch'is the payment either needs to be in full, or 50% of the loan. You cannot pay it of monthly.

Shared ownership with help to buy is ok, with the council is different, but with help to buy it is simple. The process is the same with deposit and mortgage, but the percentage are based on the percentage you own (50%, 80% etc). The difference is you can buy back shares that help to buy owns (I believe in lots of 10%, but might be 5%) do if you start with 60%, you can buy a block of 10%, then owning 70%. You can staircase, until you own it outright, or keep it shared if you want. Again I can get exact info if needed. The only catch with shared ownership is you do all maintenance and repairs and you pay rent on the shares you don't own.

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Don't they also have an age limit to the help to buy schemes? My neighbour, who was over 40, had to get his girlfriend's son on the mortgage so he was eligible to buy.

Definitely do the ISA to save for your deposit, free government money is awesome. Then you can also do one of the new build help to buy schemes. Just don't do the one's with the council. Things go sideways when you decide to sell...
The usual. American girl meets British guy. They fall into like, then into love. Then there was the big decision. The American traveled across the pond to join the Brit. And life was never the same again.


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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2016, 01:06:45 PM »
There is no official age limit except for you have to be under 75, and be able to pay it off in 25 years or by the time you reach 75 if you are over 50. They run an affordability check. That is standard and set by the hca. If he needed someone on the mortgage, that means his mortgage repayments were over 4.25% of his income. Normal mortgages have a higher percentage, but h2b is litter as you also have to save to repay that loan

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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2016, 05:11:29 PM »
I work for a housing association and we do all the help to buy for the North West. When I first started with the company I actually was doing the help to buy applications.

It is simple, you come up with 5% deposit, you get a mortgage for 75%, and help to buy covers the other 20%. It had to be a registered help to buy new build. I can't remember if your income can still be used, but I can ask my friend who still work there if you want. You have 25 years, or until you are 75 to pay back the help to buy loan. The only 'catch'is the payment either needs to be in full, or 50% of the loan. You cannot pay it of monthly.

Shared ownership with help to buy is ok, with the council is different, but with help to buy it is simple. The process is the same with deposit and mortgage, but the percentage are based on the percentage you own (50%, 80% etc). The difference is you can buy back shares that help to buy owns (I believe in lots of 10%, but might be 5%) do if you start with 60%, you can buy a block of 10%, then owning 70%. You can staircase, until you own it outright, or keep it shared if you want. Again I can get exact info if needed. The only catch with shared ownership is you do all maintenance and repairs and you pay rent on the shares you don't own.

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Thank you for your help. We are going to see a developer tomorrow. Hoping to get some info there. I want to wait a bits so we can get into a three bed versus two, but husband is ready to go. All the ones we've seen around are the 5% deposit. Just don't want to get into something we can't manage.m


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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2016, 05:12:30 PM »

Thank you for your help. We are going to see a developer tomorrow. Hoping to get some info there. I want to wait a bits so we can get into a three bed versus two, but husband is ready to go. All the ones we've seen around are the 5% deposit. Just don't want to get into something we can't manage.m


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In addition, This developer in particular, did mention it was interest free for five years and meant to be paid off in ten.


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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2016, 05:53:01 PM »
You can put a bigger deposit down and get a smaller mortgage. What area are you in? Most developers will help out with everything, they are keen to sell

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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2016, 09:14:47 AM »
We're in Peterborough. The developer were looking at is Persimmon homes. They have a couple locations here. There's a couple others we may end up looking at. Just really was interested in if people have done help to buy and their thoughts. I'm not sure what will happen, because in our brochure it stated you have to have ILR or citizenship and I'm nowhere near those, so we may just end up saving for a longer time due to that. Depends if he can get on the mortgage himself.


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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2016, 12:19:39 AM »
Hi,

Not sure if you've read this about the whole Help to Buy scheme/ISA's.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/savings/help-to-buy-isa-shambles-so-are-these-accounts-still-worth-it/

When all these shared ownership, 25%, 50% buy and rent the rest, help to buy, reserved for specific industry personnel etc schemes all became more 'well known' in recent years, I've not liked them particularly. I know for some it's perhaps the only route to actually 'buying' something instead of renting, but I just felt the extra risks went too far in case of 'issues' usually personal/change of circumstances occurred.

My suggestion would be to research as much as you can and as best as you can for all your potential options but keep these 'schemes' as a lower priority/potential route.

It's tough out there for property purchasing so I wish you the best of luck!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!


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Re: Help to buy scheme
« Reply #10 on: August 24, 2016, 05:59:53 PM »
Hi,

Not sure if you've read this about the whole Help to Buy scheme/ISA's.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/savings/help-to-buy-isa-shambles-so-are-these-accounts-still-worth-it/

When all these shared ownership, 25%, 50% buy and rent the rest, help to buy, reserved for specific industry personnel etc schemes all became more 'well known' in recent years, I've not liked them particularly. I know for some it's perhaps the only route to actually 'buying' something instead of renting, but I just felt the extra risks went too far in case of 'issues' usually personal/change of circumstances occurred.

My suggestion would be to research as much as you can and as best as you can for all your potential options but keep these 'schemes' as a lower priority/potential route.

It's tough out there for property purchasing so I wish you the best of luck!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Thanks! That was a good read. The ones we've been looking at are the ones where you can have a minimum of five percent down, government loan and mortgage. A lot of people are saying its to good of a loan to pass, but it seems like a lot to take out a potential 30-45 k loan on top of mortgage, and have that loan be paid of by a certain date. We really just don't want to get under water in debt and we spoke to a finance person Who worked it out for us on a 210k house (a lot higher than what we want to spend..but wanted to aim high) and it was ridiculous. He said after the initial five years we would be paying around 65 a month in interest off the government loan, plus paying off that 44k loan and the mortgage monthly. Granted we only calculated it with the bare minimum deposit And we do want to put more down than that, it just seems like whoaa!


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