‘We can get into London within minutes now’
HELP TO BUY MEANT THIS COMMUTING COUPLE COULD FIND A HOME IN AN IDEAL LOCATION, THEY TELL ANDREA DEAN...
TIFFANY SWEENEY, 29, and her partner Myles Bull, 28, can’t wait to move into their new home at Ebbsfleet Quarter, part of Redrow’s Ebbsfleet Green in Ebbsfleet Garden City. They reserved it off-plan at the start of the year and are currently living with Miles’ dad in Dartford while waiting for it to complete in January.
Their decision to buy in Ebbsfleet was largely driven by its convenience for their workplaces: Tiffany, a broadcast journalist, is based in central London and Myles is a property developer and franchise owner at Subway in Maidstone.
‘Though we reserved before the coronavirus pandemic escalated, it hasn’t impacted our decision to buy in Ebbsfleet in the slightest,’ explains Tiffany. ‘We both travel to work and will not be working from home so selecting somewhere well-connected was hugely important to us. Being able to catch a 17-minute train to St Pancras from Ebbsfleet will be brilliant, and easy access to the A2 is ideal for Myles, who drives to Maidstone.’
The couple paid £509,995 for their three-bed detached house, and are taking advantage of Help to Buy, which provides a loan of up to 20 per cent of the value to purchasers with a minimum five per cent deposit, so they only need a 75 per cent mortgage.
It’s interest-free for five years, and can be repaid when the property is sold – or sooner. At the moment, the scheme is offered on new-builds up to £600,000 across England but lower regional price caps are coming into force on April 1, 2021. The only area that will be unaffected is London, where the maximum loan is 40 per cent, requiring a 55 per cent mortgage.
The couple’s purchasing power has been given another boost by the stamp duty holiday, which means that there’s no tax to pay on the first £500,000 of transactions completing by the end of next March.
‘We had saved the £15,000 stamp duty fees over a number of years and with some help from our parents.
‘Having to put such a large sum of money aside for this was hard because it sucked up our entire savings,’ adds Tiffany. ‘Hearing about the stamp duty holiday was a complete relief and has meant we can invest the money saved into furniture, extras and upgrades – via Redrow’s online platform, ‘My Redrow’ – and still have some money left aside for a rainy day.