New first-time buyer scheme to be confirmed at Budget

[sbplanet]

"The government has today (Saturday 26 September 2026) announced a new equity loan scheme - Your First Home - in England will be confirmed at next month’s Budget, to support more people into homeownership.

This is expected to support 2.5% deposits, backed by 20% government-backed equity loans, for prospective first-time buyers purchasing a new-build property from a developer signed up to the scheme.

People will be able to access equity loans with an initial interest free period, meaning that those who use the scheme could save hundreds of pounds per month compared to a 95% mortgage.

The Your First Home scheme will help tackle the deposit barrier for first-time buyers who would be unable to afford their first home otherwise, building on the government’s existing work to help more young people and families onto the housing ladder. The scheme will also set a household income cap with local property price caps to further ensure support is targeted at those who need it, the detail of which will be set out at Budget.

With the new build housing market currently facing challenging headwinds driven by international economic pressures and rising construction costs, the scheme will also act as a much-needed stimulus to support the market and boost housing supply.

Developers will be expected to make a contribution when signing up to the scheme to help cover costs.

Further details, including costs and implementation timelines, will be announced by the Chancellor at the Budget next month. "

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-first-time-buyer-scheme-to-be-confirmed-at-budget

Yes, how to put the young into negative equity as house prices fall.

Yet another crap scheme to fund house builders. Management charges. Poor quality builds. Overpriced. A load of bullshit that benefits no one except building firms.

Why not allow FTB to buy second hand and get people moving (the original scheme did this about 20 years ago)?

Is this another version of Help to Buy which was on new builds also.

Yep, mainly because of the relatively low deposit that’s required, just like in shared ownership. So much more likelihood of people ending up being mortgage prisoners and in negative equity.

This is a disaster waiting to happen.

For new builds yes definitely. But exsisting leashold flats and houses will suffer further falls.

Seeing hoe many nrw builds around are just sitting there (because they will not drop price), it makes sense devlopers lobbied for this again.
We need to sell the shitty boxes and keep rising prices somehow.

People posting about the lack of affordability - these shoeboxes will likely be targeted at young people who can easily get mortgage terms for 25+ years. With a median salary of £37k and the tiny deposit required, they could get a shoebox flat (maybe even a shoebox house) in some parts of the country.

So yet another wheeze to keep house prices high and the Ponzi scheme continues. Can’t let the wealthy developers and property owners suffer a fall in asset values and profits can we!

Not much use if “some part of the country” is nowhere near where they work!

You need ways of more housing being available alongside this. Restricting housing being used for short term lets (Air BnB and others) and reducing second homes being one part of this in my opinion.

Nail on the head. People are insane to get involved with schemes like this which continue to inflate housing costs to the benefit of rich developers and other property owners.

A huge yes to restricting holiday lets, but we also need to be quicker at dealing with empty and derelict homes and convert commercial property into homes, ie flats about shops left empty for decades after chains took over high streets etc.

Yes, it will be a disaster for those who sign up for this, especially in a falling market.
As another poster said, of course the house building companies have been lobbying for this for ages.

It won’t work in run town towns because they’re run down due to lack of jobs usually.

The only positive thing I can see is that everyone on this thread can see through this 'help FTB developers scheme'. If lots of people on here are parents, hopefully they can put their young adult children off taking such a huge risk on a failure of a scheme.

And the cherry on top of the cake is the monthly charges which I gather are part of the terms and conditions when you buy a new build property (at least most of the time). Otherwise known as fleecehold.

Yup, we’ve already had the FaceTime chat with DS. He pinged us as soon as he heard the proposal to check with us about his initial thoughts which were not to touch it with a bargepole - he wanted to check we agreed!

It shows Labour's policies are the same as the Tories.
I look forward to the budget for them to show their true colours. There will be nothing radical I’m sure.

Not sure why you have quoted those things at me.

But yes one thing is for sure, people are living somewhere and if youbread my post you'll see where! In shared bedrooms in their parents houses, in social housing with no prospect of owning their own, likewise with expensive private rents, or in overcrowded dingy HMOs which aren't fit for purpose.

We live in the Home Counties, expensive but this is where we were born and bred so our whole lives, jobs, friends and families etc are here.

Same here. Tories and Labour are indeed two cheeks of the same arse. They’re in hock to the shady people in the background who have the money and power who get the politicians to do their bidding. It’s how they anointed both Sunak and Burnham as prime ministers without even Party internal voting let alone a GE! Their power behind the scenes must be huge!

Iirc woth derelict houses it's mainly ptoblem tracing owners. If councils start using CPNs and EDMOs more it will justlead to screams about councils stealimg properties (not by the people living next to the wrecks... ). There is one absolure wreck of a house (ok family sized in resonably priced area) local councillor is trying to deal with. It takes an absolute age to find who is responsible apparently.

They can share their accommodation, like millions of people do and therefore save money for the biggest deposit they can accrue. It’s much better to do that than jump into this silly scheme or shared ownership.

My adult dc was asking me about this new scheme and I thought it looked ok but I have very little experience...please can anyone really tell me why this scheme is so bad for my FTB kids?

It’s not. It’s extremely generous - zero interest for five years is amazing in today’s high interest world (albeit it’s only in 20% of the house price).

Just make sure the house/flat they are buying is fairly priced and the overall mortgage is affordable for them when the five year interest free period ends

My son “shares” accommodation and still can’t save because he’s still paying over £1200 per month for a single bedroom in a basement! Housing costs are insane, even in HMOs in cities where the jobs are. The days of affordable house shares are long gone except in run down areas.