Shared Home Ownership Schemes to Bypass the Need for a Deposit

You may have heard about the help available through the Scottish Government to help you buy a home. They run shared home ownership schemes in which they will take an equity stake in the property of your choosing. This is to help those on low to moderate incomes buy a home that otherwise wouldn’t be able to get on the property ladder. There are two types of share home ownership schemes under the Government initiative, one is for those buying a home that has already been occupied and the other is for brand new build properties. The latter, the Open Market Shared Equity scheme, has recently finished a pilot and is been opened up to the rest of Scotland. Certainly at the moment you can apply to the scheme if you live in the Highland Council area, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and The Moray Council areas. Then closer to the central belt we have East Lothian, Midlothian, Perth & Kinross, Stirling and West Lothian Council areas and the capital Edinburgh. These mortgage schemes come under the LIFT programme, which stands for Low Cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers, the government scheme to help those with financial constraints find a property. These shared home ownership schemes certainly in these economic hard times, when banks are tightening their lending criteria, asking for larger deposits, twenty five per cent deposits, how many people really can afford to put up that kind of deposit. If your property is say £160,000 that is £40,000! These government schemes which are targeted to those on low incomes, may still be available to you (your definition of low might be different to the governments), get past the need for a deposit by taking on an equity partner who pretty much lets you run the home and will only needed to be asked permission for a couple of things. The main one is if you are considering sub letting the property you do have to consult the Scottish Government and it is at their discretion whether they will allow you to have someone move into the flat or not.