Anna & Gareth celebrating after becoming home owners
Case Study - HomeBuy Opens Doors in Bristol
FIRST TIME BUYERS CAN’T AFFORD TO BUY, BUT A NEW SCHEME GIVES THEM A PUSH UP THE PROPERTY LADDER
Struggling first time buyers now have the real possibility of owning their own home thanks to a new Government initiative scheme called HomeBuy.
Launched in December 2007 the Open Market HomeBuy scheme allows purchasers to find their own home on the open market with a third of the property value as a deposit interest free for five years.
Anna and Gareth Dixon previously rented a flat through a division of Somer Housing association. Anna said ‘the damp course failed and so we decided to buy our own home, but we couldn’t afford it’.
They thought that they would be limited to renting forever until they heard about the HomeBuy scheme; Gareth said ‘we had heard about Keyworker schemes before and a friend that had previously bought a flat using this type of scheme told us to look into it.’ ‘We looked on the internet and were surprised to find that we qualified for Government help.’
Affordability is big issue in all of Bristol and First Time Buyers are often priced out of the market Anna said ‘we have wanted to buy our own house for a while, but didn't earn sufficient money to take on a reasonable mortgage that we could afford.’
Mortgage lenders are being extremely cautious in the current climate but this didn’t stop them Gareth said ‘although we heard stories about mortgage lenders giving clients five times their salaries, we didn't want to get into financial difficulty just to buy a house’. Anna said ‘living in a small flat and then having maintenance problems spurred us into action to find out how we could buy our own house’.
Finding a home is always the difficult part and Anna and Gareth wanted a two bedroom home Anna said ‘we knew how much we had to spend so started looking for houses which was fun but quite hectic as Gareth works all sorts of shifts including weekends’
They were worried about the monthly cost of owning their own home Gareth said ‘we are paying more per month, but we have gone from a small flat to a 2 bedroom home and garden. ‘It is defiantly worth it, now we own a bit of England and it is worth every penny’.
Anna said ‘we applied online with our HomeBuy agent and the process was easy, however, the moving process overall was very stressful, not knowing when things were going to happen and of course wanting to move as soon as possible’. ‘We first made an online application to New Futures and after a few days we received a letter saying we were accepted onto the scheme’.
Gareth said ‘to add to the confusion our estate agent or solicitor hadn't heard of the scheme so we had to explain everything a few times, but it didn't take any longer because of the scheme’.
The burning question is should people be buying in the current market? Gareth believes so, he said ‘It is nice to go home to your own house, knowing you can stay for the rest of your life if you want to’. He added ‘it is great to have a garden and be able to decorate and do DIY so you can make your house how you like it’.
