Affordable Home Buying Schemes

If you can’t afford to buy a home, you may be entitled to some financial help from the Government, dependent on your circumstances, through an Affordable Housing Scheme.

The two main schemes available are the Shared Ownership Scheme and Help to Buy.

Shared Ownership

If you can’t afford to own a property outright, then Shared Ownership allows you to purchase a share of a property. Typically you’d be expected to purchase a 75% share in the property, whilst the remaining 25% share belongs to the local housing association. You are then required to pay rent on the remaining share. Over time, once you can afford to do so, you can buy the extra shares in the property so that you own your home outright.

Find out more about Shared Ownership schemes (link to separate guide)

Help to Buy

The Help to Buy scheme is a government-approved programme which was introduced in order to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder, and get a stagnant property market moving again.

It is split into three parts:

• Help to Buy: Equity Loan
• Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee
• Help to Buy: New Build

Find out more about the Help to Buy scheme (link to separate guide)

The Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee scheme is a UK government scheme so is available across the United Kingdom.

Depending on where you live in the UK, there are a number of options available and the schemes may differ slightly. To find out what is available in your area visit https://www.gov.uk/affordable-home-ownership-schemes to find out more information about the relevant schemes or to contact a local Help to Buy agent.