Buying a home through the HomeBuy schemes

The Government has introduced a scheme, branded as HomeBuy, to help people get a foot on the property ladder.

Contact your local HomeBuy Agent to find out if you might be eligible.

There are three parts to the HomeBuy scheme:

• New Build HomeBuy, where you share ownership of your home with a housing association; 
• Open Market HomeBuy, where you buy a property outright funded by a conventional mortgage/savings which is supplemented with the assistance of an equity loan; and  
• Social HomeBuy, where housing association and local authority tenants are helped to buy their current home. 

The Government has also introduced the First Time Buyers Initiative as part of the HomeBuy scheme.

For many people, these schemes will provide the best chance of owning a home in the area in which they want to live and work.

Housing association and local authority tenants also have other means of buying the home they currently live in:

• Right to Acquire, for housing association tenants 
• Right to Buy or Preserved Right to Buy, for tenants of council properties or those that have been transferred from a local authority to a housing association.

To check whether you are eligible for any of these schemes you should contact your landlord.