Scottish First Home Fund extended by £50m for first time buyers in Scotland

Story Homes welcomes the Scottish Government’s extension to the First Home Fund, which has been extended by £50 million and will run until 31 March 2021. This takes the First Home Fund pot from £150 million to £200 million.

The housebuilder has hailed the pledge as a hugely welcome step to help first time buyers in Scotland and the sector’s recovery.

First Home Fund was introduced in December 2019 and is aimed at helping first-time buyers onto the property ladder, with an interest free equity loan of up to £25,000, whilst the customer provides a minimum deposit of just 5%.

The scheme is available to customers who purchase their first property at Story Homes’ two Scottish-based developments – Summerpark in Dumfries and Pentland Reach in Biggar – between now and March 2021.

• The maximum contribution from the Scottish Government is £25,000 or 49% of the property valuation figure or purchase price (whichever is lower). There is no maximum property price
• To be eligible for the scheme, the buyer must provide a minimum deposit of 5% of the purchase price and the mortgage must be at least 25% of the purchase price
• You must be a first-time buyer who, does not own, or has not previously owned, a property
• If you are applying for a joint mortgage, only one applicant needs to be a first-time buyer to qualify for the scheme
• The Scottish Government equity loan is only repayable when the home is sold. If you don’t sell the home, you don’t have to repay the loan

Although the Scottish Government will have an equity share in the property, the buyer will own the home outright. There are no monthly payments to be made towards the Scottish Government and no interest will be charged.

Hayley Blair, Sales Director at Story Homes, said: “Thanks to the extension of this scheme, first-time buyers only need to provide a deposit of 5% to secure their property. This could save them a significant amount of money which they could, for example, use to furnish and decorate their new dream home. Following in the footsteps of the ever-popular Help to Buy scheme, we anticipate that we will continue to receive high levels of interest in First Home Fund.”

• Summerpark – 07966 496184, summerpark@storyhomes.co.uk 
• Pentland Reach – 07841 764712, pentlandreach@storyhomes.co.uk

*You cannot apply to other Scottish Government shared equity schemes (e.g. Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build, Help to Buy (Scotland) Smaller Developer, New Supply Shared Equity or Open Market Shared Equity) while also applying to this scheme. If you have an open application to any other shared equity scheme in Scotland you must withdraw this before you apply to this scheme. However, you are able to use a Help to Buy ISA or Lifetime ISA as part of your deposit.An administrative fee of £550 is payable directly to the Scottish Government. However, this will be refunded if the application is unsuccessful.