One of Scotland’s biggest housebuilders, Persimmon Homes, has today welcomed the Scottish Deputy First Minister’s announcement of a new £220m Government shared equity housing scheme.
John Cassie, Persimmon Homes’ regional chairman in Scotland, said the announcement was fantastic news for people looking to purchase new homes but also for the wider economy in the country.
“Today’s announcement of Help to Buy Scotland by the Scottish Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is set to have a huge impact on the housing market in Scotland. As well as delivering greater access to more new homes, the scheme will also bring more jobs into the industry, which is good news for the whole country.”
Help to Buy is proving extremely popular in England and the Scottish scheme has been greatly anticipated by home buyers across the country.
The scheme enables all purchasers, not just first-time buyers, to put down a five per cent deposit on a new-build home – much less than most banks now demand – with up to 20 per cent of the cost of the home funded by a shared-equity loan, linked to the property’s value but interest-free. Buyers can purchase a new build home up to the value of £400,000.
Help to Buy Scotland will be offered to home buyers with immediate effect from Monday 30 September and will last for three years until March 2016.
Lenders already signed up to the Scottish scheme are Bank of Scotland (including Halifax), Nationwide and Barclays. Discussions are ongoing with other lenders and it is hoped the number of lenders participating will increase as the scheme progresses.
Help to Buy Scotland will largely follow the English programme, but with one main difference – no interest will be charged by the Scottish Government on the second charge element for the whole term of the arrangement. In England, interest is charged after five years.