Buying a home of your own may be more affordable than you think, thanks to a number of schemes designed to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder.

Below, we explain how some of these schemes work.

Please note that you will usually need to live or work in the area to buy a home developed for low-cost home ownership. You may also need to be a key worker.

Key workers
New Build HomeBuy
Open Market HomeBuy
First Time Buyer's Initiative
Social HomeBuy

Key workers

Some low-cost home ownership schemes are only open to key workers such as teachers, nurses, police officers, prison and probation service staff. In some areas, staff employed by local councils, such as social workers, educational psychologists, planners and occupational therapists, may also be included.

If you have to be a key worker to apply for a scheme, your lease will explain that if you stop being a key worker, you will either have to buy your home outright or sell it. You will usually have a number of years to do so.

New Build HomeBuy

This scheme, formerly known as shared ownership, allows you to part-buy and part-rent a newly developed home from a housing association. To begin with you usually buy a share of between 25% and 40% of the property with a mortgage, and you pay a subsidised rent on the rest. Later, you can buy further shares until you own your home outright.

As an owner you pay service charges and you are responsible for your own repairs. You would also need to contribute your share towards any major repairs to the building.

As well as brand-new homes, you may be able to buy a previously developed shared ownership home from its current owner.

For more details see our shared ownership page.

Open Market HomeBuy

Open Market HomeBuy allows you to find your own home on the open market. You will need to raise 75% of the purchase price by getting a mortgage from one of the four mortgage lenders taking part in the scheme.

The lender will give you an extra equity loan to cover 12.5% of the purchase price, which will be interest free for five years. The balance will come from an equity loan from Housing Options with no monthly repayments.

If you decide to sell your home, you will need to repay both equity loans as a percentage of the current value of the property.

First-time Buyer's Initiative

This scheme is run by the Government agency, English Partnerships. Under the scheme, you buy a percentage of a brand-new home, usually at least 50%, from the builder of the development. The Government pays the balance.

For the first three years, you make no payments against the Government’s contribution, but from the third year, you pay a yearly fee, starting at 1% of this amount and rising to 3% after year five.

When you sell your home, you have to repay the original contribution as a percentage of the current value of the property. So if the Government paid 50% of the cost of your home, you repay 50% of the total value when it is sold.

While you own your home, you also have the option to repay the contribution in stages – a minimum of 10% each time.

Who do I contact?

For all of the above, to find out about schemes running in your area, you need to contact your local HomeBuy agent.

For shared ownership you can call 020 8354 5611asking for Theresa Palmer or Kuljit Gill. You may e-mail kuljit.gill@octaviahousing.org.uk.

If you live in London, go to www.housingoptions.co.uk, or phone 020 8920 7777 (if you live north of the Thames) or 020 8294 5000 (if you live south of the Thames).

If you live in Essex, go to www.homebuy.co.uk, or phone Moat Housing Association on 07002 662 846.

If you live in Southampton, go to www.homesinhants.co.uk, or phone Swaythling Housing Association on 02380 628000.

Social HomeBuy

Social HomeBuy allows social housing residents whose landlords are part of the scheme to buy their existing home, or a share in it, with a discount of up to £16,000.

The Housing Corporation have given us approval to offer this scheme. We have decided to offer this to tenants in homes that have two-bedrooms or fewer as larger homes for rent are in such short supply.

You will need a mortgage to buy a share of at least 25% of the value of your home, after the discount is taken into account. As well as your mortgage payments, you will also pay us a subsidised rent on the share of the property we still own. Later, if you want to, you can gradually buy further shares until you own your home outright, but you won’t attract any further discount.

As a home owner you pay service charges and you are responsible for your own repairs. You would also need to contribute your share towards any major repairs to the building.

You would have the right to sell your home at any time. However, if you did this within five years, you would have to repay some or all of the discount, calculated as a percentage of your home’s current value.

As with the right to buy and right to acquire schemes, you will need to meet the legal and other costs associated with buying a home. As a guide, we advise that you should have access to around £4,000.

Who do I contact about Social Homebuy?

Social Homebuy is run internally by Octavia Housing and Care. If you are interested or would like more information, please call Theresa Palmer on 020 8354 5611 or e-mail theresa.palmer@octaviahousing.org.uk , you will need to leave a message for us on our answerphone, leaving your name and contact number and we shall get in touch with you.