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Getting financial help to buy a home

If you live in England and can’t afford to buy a flat or house, you may be able to get financial help to buy a home.

'HomeBuy' schemes

There are two types of HomeBuy schemes to help people buy newly built homes (in London, HomeBuy is known as 'First Steps'):

• ‘equity loan’ - you get a loan towards the home’s purchase price that has no fees for five years
• ‘shared ownership’ - you buy a share of your home and pay rent on the remaining share

You will need to take out a mortgage to pay for your share of the home’s purchase price.

HomeBuy schemes are a first step to fully owning your home. When you can afford it, you can pay more money, eg through savings or your mortgage, to own your home outright.

You can read more about how the different HomeBuy schemes work in 'Equity loan - how it works' and 'Shared ownership - how it works'.

• Equity loan - how it works

• Shared ownership - how it works

NewBuy scheme

If you're having difficulty raising the deposit to buy a new-build home, you may qualify for the NewBuy scheme. It can help you get a mortgage of up to 95 per cent of the purchase price.

You can find out more about NewBuy and how it works in 'Buying your newly built home - the NewBuy scheme'.

• Buying your newly built home - the NewBuy scheme

Who can apply for the HomeBuy schemes?

HomeBuy schemes open to households that earn less than £60,000 a year. A household is the people who are buying the home. For example, a household might be:

• you alone
• you and your partner
• you and a friend
  

HomeBuy schemes are open to:

• first-time buyers (you are a first-time buyer if you haven’t owned a home before)
• people who rent council or housing association properties (see the Right to Buy, Right to Acquire and Social HomeBuy pages)
  

You can also get help through the HomeBuy schemes if you used to own a home, but can't afford to buy one now.

• Buying your council home - the Right to Buy scheme

• Buying your housing association home - the Right to Acquire scheme

• Social HomeBuy

Shared ownership for older people

If you are aged 55 or over, you can get help from another HomeBuy scheme called ‘Older Peoples' Shared Ownership’.

It works in the same way as the shared ownership scheme, but you can only buy up to 75 per cent of your home.

Once you own 75 per cent of the home, you won’t have to pay rent on the remaining share.

Affordable home ownership for people with disabilities

If you have a long-term disability, ‘Home Ownership for People with Long Term Disabilities’ (HOLD) can help you buy any home that is for sale on a shared ownership basis.

You can only apply for HOLD if the homes in the other HomeBuy schemes don't meet your needs, eg you need a ground floor property.

HOLD is a shared-ownership scheme: you buy a share of your home and pay rent on the remaining share. You can read 'shared ownership - how it works' to find out more.

Contact the HomeBuy agent in your area if you want to apply for HOLD.

HomeBuy agents - who they are

HomeBuy schemes are run by local HomeBuy agents, who have details of all the homes for sale through each scheme.

HomeBuy agents are housing associations that have been authorised to run schemes for people who have difficulty buying a home.

If you want to buy a HomeBuy property, you will need to apply to the HomeBuy agent for the area where you want to live.

• Find a HomeBuy agent

More useful links

• Planning for buying a home

• Buying your home

Useful contacts

• Home and community contacts