New home buyers benefit from housing scheme

After the blaze of initial publicity, we are now seeing the first real glimpses of how the UK-wide Help to Buy scheme is bedding in, writes Vicky Shaw.
12/11/2013 PA File Photo of a general view of an estate agents sign, on a street in south London. Mortgage lenders have experienced their busiest in five years amid signs that the new Help to Buy scheme is spurring competition to attract low-deposit borrowers. See PA Feature FINANCE Finance Column. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Dominic Lipinski. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FINANCE Finance Column.12/11/2013 PA File Photo of a general view of an estate agents sign, on a street in south London. Mortgage lenders have experienced their busiest in five years amid signs that the new Help to Buy scheme is spurring competition to attract low-deposit borrowers. See PA Feature FINANCE Finance Column. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Dominic Lipinski. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FINANCE Finance Column.
12/11/2013 PA File Photo of a general view of an estate agents sign, on a street in south London. Mortgage lenders have experienced their busiest in five years amid signs that the new Help to Buy scheme is spurring competition to attract low-deposit borrowers. See PA Feature FINANCE Finance Column. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Dominic Lipinski. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FINANCE Finance Column.

The scheme allows credit-worthy borrowers to buy a new-build or an older home with a 5% deposit and a state-backed mortgage which removes some of the risk for the lender if the borrower defaults. The Government has just announced that this incentive encouraged more than 2,000 people to put in offers on homes in the first month of the initiative’s launch, totalling £365 million of new mortgage lending.

The reason for the scheme is mainly that deposit mortgages have been harder to come by since the financial downturn, but the new figures show around 75 families a day are taking up the scheme.

State-backed lenders Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), NatWest, Halifax and Bank of Scotland started offering products under the new phase of Help to Buy last month and HSBC has also just unveiled two new deals it plans to offer under the scheme. HSBC will offer borrowers with a 5% deposit a two-year fixed-rate deal with a rate of 4.79% and a five-year fixed-rate at 4.99%. Both of the products have a £99 booking fee.