First time buyers guide

In this week’s podcast we’re looking at how the property market is changing in favour for owner-occupier buyers. With the government now having announced new schemes designed to make it easier for people to buy, this should get the market moving again.

So what are these schemes, and what do investors need to know about how they might affect the property market in years to come?

Firstly, if you’re not familiar with the normal house buying process, we ran through it and shared some tips. You can also check out a good explanation from Nationwide.

And here are the schemes we discussed:

New Buy

• In operation since March 2012
• For new build properties only
• Property values up to £500,000
• Allows you to get a 95% mortgage, as the lenders get these loans guaranteed by the government

Help To Buy – Mortgage Guarantee

• In effect from January 2014
• Effectively the same as New Buy, but for all properties, not just new builds
• Property values up to £600,000
• Allows you to get a 95% mortgage with any lender who’s joined the scheme

Help To Buy – Equity Loan

• In operation since 1 April 2013
• New build properties only, but not only first-time buyers
• The government lends you 20% of the equity if you’ve got a 5% deposit, allowing you to get a normal 75% mortgage for the rest
• The loan is interest free for 5 years, then is 1.75% in year 6, then increases by RPI + 1% every year

So, how might these schemes affect the market, and therefore affect you as an established investor? You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out our views…

In this week’s news story we reported that the average London asking price is now over £500,000 – double that of the rest of the country.

We’re not planning on buying a Mayfair apartment any time soon, but we speculated about the knock-on effects for the rest of the country.

Last week we were talking about news apps, and this week we mentioned Feedly – a cross-platform alternative to Google Reader, which is shutting down in July.

Also, Rob D went a bit off-piste and started sharing exercise tips: specifically, a scientifically proven 7-minute workout. To guide you through all the different exercises and timings, there’s a website called 7 Minutes of Hell.

Tell us what you thought of the show!

Do you think the new government schemes will make a big difference to the property market, or are you sceptical? Are you planning on making use of one of them?

Did we miss anything out, or was there a part of the show you particularly enjoyed?

Let us know over on our social channels.