A young Ipswich couple are eagerly awaiting the keys to their new home, after the Government’s Help To Buy scheme made home ownership achievable.
Tamar and Paul Mayne expect to move into their three bedroom house at The Laurels, on Old Norwich Road, in October, after the Persimmon Homes team introduced them to the shared equity scheme which meant they only needed to raise a five per cent deposit.
And for Tamar, it will be a home from home – she works at Thomas Wolsey School, which was formerly located where the houses are now being developed.
Tamar said: “My whole family lives in this area, so we really wanted to stay close but didn’t think we could afford anything around here.
“However Persimmon Homes told us about all the different schemes there are to help people who want to buy a new home, and Help To Buy was perfect for us. It is quite daunting, being a first time buyer, but the Persimmon staff were brilliant, guiding us through the process and making everything easy and understandable.
“Our house is now about 60 per cent completed. We’ve kept popping in to see how things are progressing and because we reserved the house off-plan we’ve been able to choose the cupboards, worktops, bathroom tiles and carpets. It’s a lot nicer to have a brand new house that is all yours, nobody else’s taste. We’re getting just exactly what we wanted.”
Tamar, 22, is a lunchtime supervisor at Thomas Wolsey school and her husband Paul, aged 26, is the digital director of Lexia, a creative agency based in Woodbridge.
The young couple had been renting locally and were thrilled to discover they could get on the housing ladder.
“We didn’t expect to be able to buy yet because without Help To Buy we would have needed to save a much bigger deposit,” said Tamar. “The house we’ve got is just a ten minute walk from work for me so it is absolutely perfect. We can’t wait to move in.”
Help to Buy enables purchasers to put down a five per cent deposit on a new-build with up to 20 per cent of the cost of the home funded by a Government shared-equity loan, linked to the property’s value but interest-free for the first five years.
Alison Page, head of sales and marketing for Persimmon Homes Anglia, said: “Help to Buy is certainly making the dream of buying your own home achievable for a lot more people.
“As Tamar says, we have expert sales staff on hand to talk through all the details and make sure everything is explained as clearly as possible. And, just like for Tamar and Paul, Help to Buy could prove to be the deciding factor in securing a brand new home, both for existing homeowners and first-time buyers.”
The Laurels is a small development of two and three bedroom homes, in the north of Ipswich, priced from just £175,950.
Persimmon Homes Anglia is delivering quality new homes throughout Norfolk and Suffolk. To find out more visit www.persimmonhomes.com