London Help-to-Buy: quick guide
- Published
The Chancellor has announced a London help-to-buy scheme in his Autumn Spending Review.
This is what we know about the scheme so far:
- It is the same as the government's existing help to buy equity loan scheme except "twice as generous" because you can borrow up to 40% of the home's value, instead of 20% under the current scheme
- It applies to new homes worth up to £600,000 in any of the London boroughs and the City of London
- There is no age limit imposed on applicants
- You must be eligible for a mortgage to qualify for the scheme and your mortgage must be for at least 25% of the property's value
- It is only open to UK residents living in the UK
- It is administered and applied for via your mortgage lender
- You must repay the loan after 25 years or when you sell your home
- When the five years interest free period expires you will pay 1.75% annual interest on the loan in addition to RPI plus 1%
A spokesman for the Treasury said the new scheme was simultaneously designed to help people get onto the property ladder and to help stimulate house building.
If you accept a 40% London equity help-to-buy loan you are required to pay back a 40% share of the value of the home when you come to sell.
Between April 2013 and June 2015 the government provided 3,128 help-to-buy equity loans in London worth nearly £200m in total.
In the capital the most help-to-buy loans were supplied in the borough of Havering (362).
Four London boroughs - Haringey, Westminster, Camden and Kensington and Chelsea - had no applications for the scheme. The City of London also had no loan applications.
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