Help To Buy Scheme Extended

The Help to Buy equity loans scheme is a government initiative for those who are either looking to buy their first home or are home movers on new-build homes in England with a purchase price of up to £600,000. The Help to Buy equity loans provide a low-interest loan towards the deposit. The loan is interest free for the first 5 years. New home buyers need a 5% deposit, and the government lends up to 20% of the value of the home (up to 40% for London).

The Help to Buy equity loan scheme has helped more than a quarter of a million people to buy a home. Since the start of the scheme on 1 April 2013, 272,852 property sales have been completed.

The government is also announcing an extra measure to protect existing customers who have experienced severe delays as a result of coronavirus.

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The deadline for the homes to have been finished in order to comply with the equity loan scheme has been extended from 31 December 2020 to 28 February 2021 to ensure home buyers do not miss out if there has been a delay in construction due to the pandemic. The deadline for the legal completion of the sale will remain the same – 31 March 2021. The completion of sale deadline may be extended further to 31 May 2021 if a reservation was in place by 30 June 2020. These changes apply to the equity loans scheme in England and not to similar schemes in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales.

Separately, the government’s new Help to Buy scheme, which will replace the current scheme, will come into place from 1 April 2021 and run until March 2023 as planned and there are no plans for further extensions. The new scheme introduces property price caps and is restricted to first-time buyers only, supporting people onto the housing ladder.

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