Up and running: First NewBuy purchase completes

Published: 02/05/2012

The new Government scheme NewBuy has helped its first wannabe homeowner purchase a property just eight weeks after its launch, according to specialist new build broker Mortgage Talk.

Henna Rai has become the first borrower to benefit from the scheme taking out a 95 per cent loan-to-value (LTV) NewBuy mortgage from Nationwide and completing on a new build Bovis Homes property in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Speaking about her purchase, homeowner Rai described her frustration at renting and cohabitating:

“I was done with renting and living with other people and felt it was time to do things on my own and stand on my own two feet. This is my first place and it really feels like a new chapter in my life – it’s great to be spending money on my own mortgage rather than someone else’s.”¹

NewBuy is designed to help first time buyers get on to the property ladder as well as assisting existing homeowners trapped in their current property and unable to move up by addressing the high deposits now required to purchase a property.

With property developers and the Government financing an indemnity guarantee, lenders are able to offer larger LTV mortgages on new build homes.

Lisa Burns-Kent, Head of New Homes at Mortgage Talk who helped secure the milestone, believes NewBuy could help bolster the dormant property market:

“We’ve already seen huge levels of interest from potential borrowers and this deal is the first of many more. We have no doubt that NewBuy will be successful; it is a very useful product and has the potential to open up homeownership to thousands of people.”¹

News this week however has seen lenders hike rates.

¹Mortgage Solutions (April 2012)

Content correct at time of publication