Does anyone know about Help To Buy?

[ForTheLoveOfMod]

We're looking to buy our first home in a few months and are looking at the Help To Buy scheme (the shared equity side, not the new house one) - you have to provide a minimum of 5% deposit yourself then have the 20% government loan but is there a maximum deposit you can put in before they'll decide you can't use the scheme?

We're hoping to have about 10% deposit, putting the mortgage we'd need down to 70% LTV which would be much better for us accessing a mortgage than 75% (because of the amount allowed to borrow, as we're on a low-ish income, but the mortgage payments and loan repayment would still be less than our current rent), but can we do this? Or will we be told we should then go and get a 90% mortgage on our own (impossible)?

Hi, afaik the shared equity scheme is only on new builds. The one where you can access a 95% mortgage is called 'mortgage guarantee' help to buy and applies to non new builds.

Sorry, I messed up the names - the shared equity one is the new home one I meant the mortgage guarantee one, but the figures are all the same.

Do you know if you can have more than 5% deposit with that one?

As far as I'm aware there's the following schemes:

HTB Equity Loan - on certain new builds only where you get get an equity loan of up to 20% from the government interest free for 5 years

HTB Mortgage Guarantee - available on any home, from certain lenders, where you put a 5% deposit down and get a 95% LTV mortgage but 20% is guaranteed by the government, theoretically giving you a lower interest rate, but, I think you can often find better rates outside the HTB scheme - Nationwide have a 95% product and if you can do a 10% deposit, you can probably get a much better deal without it. I'd find a broker familiar with all the schemes.

Shared Ownership - where you buy a % of a property from a housing association and pay rent to them on the remaining %

Thanks London - trouble is the loan we thought so far we'd be offered based on our incomes is only enough for about 70-75% on a basic property around here so it's the income multiple rather than the straight LTV that's the problem. Definitely need to speak to a broker though, checked a couple of lenders before who could only offer us the equivalent of 70ish% but I just looked on Halifax who could, income wise, offer 100% of what we need (although obviously they wouldn't on LTV) so will have to find a broker and see if we could get a 90%.

With all of the schemes they tend to assess affordability as if you were just a normal customer (if you see what I mean) and with the equity loan they estimate a repayment figure after 5 years and include that.

The best thing I found is if you google "[your mortgage lender] for intermediaries", you can find the affordability calculators that the banks use.

Something to be aware of - we got a decision in principle from Halifax for more than enough, and then were immediately declined at full application!! Eventually went with Natwest through a broker.

Meanwhile, do you have a HTB ISA. gov.uk mse

What's your hurry btw? It might be an idea to see how the markets go (after Brexit) before you rush into anything.