Shared Ownership allows you to buy a share of your home – between 10% and 75%. You pay rent on the remaining share. You take out a mortgage on the share you want to buy and pay rent on the remaining amount. This means you need to make sure you can afford both the mortgage and the rent costs.
You can increase your share in the property later if you can afford to. The scheme is available on new-build properties, or on existing homes that are being sold through a housing association.
The First Homes scheme (only available in England) allows you to buy a home for 30% to 50% less than its market value. The homes must either be a new build or one that was originally bought as part of the scheme.
To be eligible for the scheme, you must be 18 or older, a first-time buyer, able to get a mortgage for at least half the price of the home and have an annual household income of £80,000 or less (£90,000 in London).
The aim of the Mortgage Guarantee scheme (introduced in April 2021) is to increase the number of 95% mortgages available in the market. Through it, the government offers lenders the financial guarantees they need to provide these higher LTV deals for properties up to £600,000.
The scheme was originally due to run until December 2022 but has been extended to the end of 2023.
The Right to Buy scheme offers council tenants the chance to purchase the house or flat they are living in, often below market value. This is only available in England (and Northern Ireland, in a slightly different format). Right to Acquire is a similar scheme for housing association tenants.
You may be able to apply to buy your council home if it's your only or main home, it's self-contained, you're a secure tenant and you've had a public sector landlord for at least 3 years.
The Help to Buy scheme is now only available in Wales. For those who meet the eligibility requirements, the government provides an equity loan to first-time buyers to assist them with purchasing a property. This is only available for new-build properties.
With Help-to-Buy – Wales, you must provide a deposit worth 5% of the property price. You then get a shared equity loan of up to 20% of the purchase price. You take out a repayment mortgage to cover the remaining amount.
A Lifetime ISA offers a 25% tax-free bonus to savings to help you build a deposit for your first home. You can save a maximum of £4,000 a year (meaning the maximum bonus available is £1,000 per year). You must have held one for a year before using the money to buy your first home, and it's only available on homes worth up to £450,000.
If you don't use the funds for your first home, you can also use them for retirement. But if you withdraw the money for any other reason then you may lose the bonus amount and face penalties on your savings as well.