Fund your first home
£25,000 from scheme can help with property move, writes Paul Drury
WE are told ‘if something seems too good to be true, it probably is’. But firsttime buyers might have the exception to prove the rule in a help-to-buy scheme under way from the Scottish Government.
Of course, it didn’t help that the First Home Fund resumed on April 1, yet it is no joke.
You can obtain £25,000 from public funds to help you buy a house, so long as you have never owned property before.
Members of the older generation can only sigh at the memory of ‘tapping’ old Aunt Ann for the last £250 of that first-home deposit.
But in return for the £25,000 being offered today, the Government takes an equity stake in your house, which can be a new-build or an existing property in Scotland.
If, for example, you pay £100,000 for your new home, you need to find £75,000 in a deposit and mortgage and the Government will finance the other £25,000.
You will own your house and will probably only have to repay anything when you come to sell.
The Government will take a share of any uptick in value so if you achieve a selling price of, say, £150,000, the Government will be due £37,500 to reflect its 25 per cent ‘stake’ in the property.
There is one catch, though. This initiative has less funding than in previous years, so when the £60million pot has been exhausted, the First Home Fund will clang shut.
If every applicant took out the maximum £25,000, there would be enough for only 2,400 homebuyers to benefit.
To celebrate the new reservoir of cash, Cala Homes (West) has picked out its best developments which would suit first-time buyers keen to make their dream move.
Situated on the former site of Glasgow’s 1988 Garden Festival, Prince’s Quay includes one, two and three-bedroom apartments plus three-bedroom townhouses offering the best of urban living in the heart of the city.
Apartment prices start from £214,000, and townhouses cost from £323,000.
Beatrice Meadows in the commuter town of Kirkintilloch could also tick all the boxes for first-time buyers – offering the best of both worlds, with picturesque views out to the Campsie Fells just ten miles from Glasgow city centre.
Apartments in this Dunbartonshire development begin at £149,995 and detached homes at £379,995. Liana Canavan, sales and marketing director of Cala Homes (West), said: ‘The re-opening of the First Home Fund is a welcome initiative to give eligible first-time buyers the assistance they need to make their first steps onto the property ladder.’
CALA Homes across the West of Scotland, call 01324 600 000 or visit www.cala.co.uk. Application forms for the First Home Fund can be found at https://linkhousing. org.uk/firsthomefund