Who can apply for the HomeBuy schemes?
HomeBuy schemes are open to households that earn less than £60,000 a year. A household is the people who are buying the home. For example, a household might be:
• you alone
• you and your partner
• you and a friend
HomeBuy schemes are open to:
• first-time buyers (you are a first-time buyer if you haven’t owned a home before)
• people who rent council or housing association properties (see the Right to Buy, Right to Acquire and Social HomeBuy pages)
You can also get help through the HomeBuy schemes if you used to own a home, but can't afford to buy one now.
How do you apply for a HomeBuy Scheme?
The local HomeBuy Agent, My4walls, provides a one-stop-shop service to assess the eligibility of applicants and market Low Cost Home Ownership schemes for all Registered Housing Providers in North East Lincolnshire.
This means that first time buyers only need to apply once to access all Low Cost Home Ownership schemes in their area, regardless of which Registered Provider is providing the scheme.
Households with a combined income of less than £60,000 may qualify for one of the schemes. A full list of eligibility criteria is available on the My4walls website
Eligibility Guidelines
Who Are My4walls?
HomeBuy schemes are run by local HomeBuy agents, who have details of all the homes for sale through each scheme. For this area My4walls are a subsidary of Yorkshire Housing Association which have been authorised to run schemes for people who have difficulty buying a home in North East Lincolnshire. If you want to buy a HomeBuy property, you will need to apply to My4walls.
HomeBuy Online Application Form
My4walls
Getting financial help to buy a home
If you live in England and can’t afford to buy a flat or house you may be able to get financial help to buy a home.
'HomeBuy' schemes
There are two types of HomeBuy scheme to help people buy newly built homes:
• FirstBuy ‘equity loan’ - you get a loan towards the home’s purchase price that has no fees for five years
• HomeBuy ‘shared ownership’ - you buy a share of your home and pay rent on the remaining share
You will need to take out a mortgage to pay for your share of the home’s purchase price.
HomeBuy schemes are a first step to fully owning your home. When you can afford it, you can pay more money, eg through savings or your mortgage, to own your home outright.
You can read more about how the different HomeBuy schemes work in 'Equity loan - how it works' and 'Shared ownership - how it works'.
• Equity loan - how it works • Housing Developers involved in the FirstBuy scheme in North East Lincolnshire
• Shared ownership - how it works • Housing Associations with Shared Ownership and Rent to Buy Properties in North East Lincolnshire.
Shared ownership for older people
If you are aged 55 or over, you can get help from another HomeBuy scheme called ‘Older Peoples' Shared Ownership’.
It works in the same way as the shared ownership scheme, but you can only buy up to 75 per cent of your home.
Once you own 75 per cent of the home, you won’t have to pay rent on the remaining share.
Affordable home ownership for people with disabilities
If you have a long-term disability, ‘Home Ownership for People with Long Term Disabilities’ (HOLD) can help you buy any home that is for sale on a shared ownership basis.
You can only apply for HOLD if the homes in the other HomeBuy schemes don't meet your needs, eg you need a ground floor property.
HOLD is a shared-ownership scheme: you buy a share of your home and pay rent on the remaining share. You can read 'shared ownership - how it works' to find out more.
Contact the HomeBuy agent in your area if you want to apply for HOLD.
Rent to HomeBuy
Individuals pay reduced rent on a new build home for up to five years to help them save for a deposit and go on to purchase the property.
FirstBuy
An equity loan of up to 20% of the purchase price is provided equally by the Homes & Communities Agency and a housebuilder, with purchasers being required to raise funding (a mortgage plus a deposit) for at least 80% of the purchase price.
Right to acquire
If you’re a social housing tenant, you could buy a share in your home using the Social HomeBuy scheme. You can use this scheme if you can’t afford to buy your home through the Right to Buy or Right to Acquire schemes. You’ll get a discount on any share you buy.
o Buying your housing association home - the Right to Acquire scheme
o Social HomeBuy
NewBuy - Indemnity mortgage scheme
NewBuy scheme
If you're having difficulty raising the deposit to buy a new-build home, you may qualify for the NewBuy scheme. It can help you get a mortgage of up to 95 per cent of the purchase price.
Qualifying borrowers have access to mortgages of up to 95 per cent loan to house value at affordable rates on new build homes from participating builders. The scheme will be available to all potential buyers, except buy-to-let investors or second home owners.
You can find out more about NewBuy and how it works in:
o Buying your newly built home - the NewBuy scheme
o NewBuy website