 As high mortgage rates and spiralling rents continue to squeeze affordability and savings, house builders are coming up with innovative ways to help first-time buyers get into a place of their own. The Save To Buy scheme from Fairview New Homes, which launched in January, is aimed at those who are stuck in a rental cycle and struggling to save a deposit. It enables them to move into a new home with a deposit as low as one per cent, then pay a monthly fixed fee for up to two years – 100 per cent of this goes towards topping up their deposit, so they're living rent-free. The scheme is certainly timely – a survey by Fairview found that 79 per cent of renters in the UK and 83 per cent in London feel the cost of renting is negatively impacting their ability to save a deposit. To be eligible, first-time buyers must be pre-qualified by a financial adviser, and can move in once contracts have been exchanged. A month before you've saved a minimum five per cent deposit, you apply for a mortgage and, on completion, the property is yours. The whole process is transparent, so you'll know up front exactly how much your monthly payments will be. Save to Buy is currently offered at Epping Gate in Loughton, Essex (Picture: andrewhendry.com) Save to Buy is currently offered at Epping Gate in Loughton, Essex, where the first buyers to utilise it recently moved in. Eleonora, a 32-year-old executive assistant, and Stan, a 27-year-old letting agent, had saved £9,000, equating to a 2.65 per cent deposit on a one-bedroom flat costing £339,000. The pair, who had previously been renting, discovered the scheme on TikTok and enquired about it the same day. After viewing Epping Gate they had the keys to their new home within three weeks and are now paying £1,590 a month towards a deposit. They're aiming to complete within five months – by which point they will have saved the full){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
As high mortgage rates and spiralling rents continue to squeeze affordability and savings, house builders are coming up with innovative ways to help first-time buyers get into a place of their own.
The Save To Buy scheme from Fairview New Homes, which launched in January, is aimed at those who are stuck in a rental cycle and struggling to save a deposit.
It enables them to move into a new home with a deposit as low as one per cent, then pay a monthly fixed fee for up to two years – 100 per cent of this goes towards topping up their deposit, so they’re living rent-free.
The scheme is certainly timely – a survey by Fairview found that 79 per cent of renters in the UK and 83 per cent in London feel the cost of renting is negatively impacting their ability to save a deposit.