New research from Kier Homes has revealed that, thanks to a new government scheme, it is now cheaper to buy a new three bedroom family home in the Bourne than it is to rent a similar sized older property.
Kier’s research reveals that older three bedroom family homes at present command a monthly rent of approximately £650 to £675. A brand new three bedroom home at Kier’s The Rushes development can be bought through the government’s FirstBuy scheme with a monthly mortgage commitment of between £530 - 550. Crucially the Firstbuy scheme also reduces the deposit that families need to secure a new home to just 5%.
Many families are prevented from buying their first home because mortgage offers in today’s market require the buyer to provide at least 25% of the purchase price in the form of a deposit. With the average house in the country costing around £160,000 that means today’s first time buyers will need to have access to a deposit of £40,000.
The FirstBuy scheme is designed to get over this impasse by offering buyers an additional equity loan on a new home of up to 20% of the purchase price, allowing buyers to accept mortgage offers of 75% loan to value and combine the two loans. As an accredited government partner in the scheme, Kier Homes can now offer the FirstBuy loans at it’s The Rushes development in Bourne meaning that buyers now only need to find a much more manageable 5% deposit before they can move into their first home.
New three bedroom homes are available at The Rushes for £149,500 which means that through FirstBuy a deposit of only £7500 is required. With the equity loan resulting in a much lower loan to value being required, mortgages (subject to status) to cover 75% of the purchase price are available at rates of around 3%- 4%. A repayment mortgage at a rate of 3.09% would mean month repayments of approximately £536.
This scheme is exclusively available for first time buyers with a household income of less than £60,000 looking to purchase properties up to a maximum value of £280,000. (Subject to terms and conditions)
The FirstBuy Loans will be free of charge for the first five years and will need to be repaid when the property is resold. As the loans are paid back they will be recycled to fund more homes for others joining the scheme.