Shared Equity Mortgage Schemes Help

You may be one of the many people struggling to secure a mortgage or trying to remortgage your home. It was revealed in the news this week that while the number of mortgages issued by lenders has increased in February other evidence suggests the market is far from the path of recovery. While banks have increased their lending amounts it still isn’t enough to meet demand. The biggest stinger unfortunately is the typical deposit required to secure a mortgage is 25%. Not many of us can afford such a huge some, if you are looking for a two bedroom home which will set you back around £160,000 that means you are looking at putting up £40,000. The only type of people who can put up that deposit is probably those recently divorced those that have financial assistance from their family or people who have lived with their parents saving vast amounts of money or have been renting for an extended period of time. For the rest of us there are other options we can consider should we be unable to afford the humongous deposits. Well the UK governments run various shared ownership schemes to give buyers a helping hand to be able to buy a home. The Scottish Government offer the LIFT scheme which stands for Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers. There are two shared equity mortgage schemes under the LIFT umbrella. There is the New Supply Shared Scheme which as the name suggests will help you buy a new build home. The Open Market Shared Scheme has recently been extending across Scotland this one helps with the purchase of any home on the open market up to a certain price. The shared equity mortgage scheme will see the Scottish Government help those on low incomes by taking a stake in a home they want to purchase. This needs to be the minority stake so no more than 49% however it does depend on your circumstances on whether you will be first of all accepted and how much they are willing to invest in the property; generally it is between 20-40%. This scheme will help many and their families buy their first home by side stepping the need for a large deposit.