Story Homes launches new purchasing scheme for Scottish first-time buyers

Story Homes is pleased to introduce a new scheme run by the Scottish Government, helping first-time buyers in Scotland to purchase a property. The scheme is called ‘First Home Fund’.

As part of this new offering, the Scottish Government will provide first-time buyers with an interest free equity loan of up to £25,000, whilst the customer provides a minimum deposit of just 5%.

The new scheme is now available to customers who purchase their first property at Story Homes’ two Scottish-based developments – Summerpark in Dumfries and Pentland Reach in Biggar – between now and March 2021. Here’s a little more information about First Home Fund:

The maximum contribution from the Scottish Government is £25,000 or 49% of the property valuation figure or purchase price (whichever is lower)
To be eligible for the scheme, the buyer must provide a minimum deposit of 5% of the purchase price and the mortgage must be at least 25% of the purchase price
You must be a first-time buyer who, does not own, or has not previously owned, a property
If you are applying for a joint mortgage, only one applicant needs to be a first-time buyer to qualify for the scheme
The Scottish Government equity loan is only repayable when the home is sold. If you don’t sell the home, you don’t have to repay the loan

Although the Scottish Government will have an equity share in the property, the buyer will own the home outright. There are no monthly payments to be made towards the Scottish Government and no interest will be charged.

Dylan Kelly, Head of Marketing & Communications, at Mortgage Advice Bureau’s Network Partner in Scotland, explained: “The First Home Fund is a fantastic new scheme that will allow house-hunters in Scotland to take those all-important first steps onto the property ladder.

“It’s important to note that the Scottish Government has capped this scheme at £150m. We would therefore strongly encourage first-time buyers to take advantage of the First Home Fund as soon as possible, because once all of the funding has been allocated, the scheme will close.”

Hayley Blair, Head of Sales at Story Homes, said: “Thanks to this new scheme, our first-time buyers only need to provide a deposit of 5% to secure their property. This could save them a significant amount of money which they could, for example, use to furnish and decorate their new dream home. Following in the footsteps of the ever-popular Help to Buy scheme, we anticipate that we’ll receive high levels of interest in First Home Fund from our Scottish customers.”