YASMIN BUNN, 26

Purley, Croydon

“I HAD spent three years renovating a house in Sidcup with my boyfriend into my forever home — and then we split up,” says recruitment consultant Yasmin Bunn, 26.

Her ex-boyfriend bought her out of their home and Yasmin moved back in with her mother in Sevenoaks for lockdown.

When the property market reopened, she went to view a new-build flat in Kenley in Croydon and fell in love with the development, but didn’t want to put an offer in right away because it was the only place she had considered.

Nine grotty apartments and a few weeks later, she went back to Property Experts, the original developer, but the flat she’d had her eye on had been sold. Instead the developer showed her around a new site in Purley called West Hill.

Yasmin put in an offer on a two-bedroom flat for £420,000 using the Government’s Help to Buy equity loan scheme, meaning she only had to put down a five per cent deposit.

“The developer has been so kind, saying they want to make this my dream home because they know I’ve had a difficult year,” says Yasmin. “They even sourced things I showed them from my last home, like a similar granite worktop.”

The developer phoned her after the stamp duty holiday was announced to let her know that she was about to save £11,000. “To have Help to Buy and now a stamp duty holiday is amazing, I feel so lucky,” says Yasmin.

“To buy alone has been daunting, no one else in my family has ever owned property and I earned and saved every single penny I’ve put into this flat.

“I’ve been working since I was 14 so I didn’t do a lot of those fun teenage things. Now I’ve got some extra money and my independence.”

To have Help to Buy and now save £11,000 because of the stamp duty holiday is amazing. I feel so lucky