The government will offer a 20% equity loan and require a minimum 2.5% deposit for new-build purchases in England. Key details — income and price caps, interest terms and repayment rules — are still to be announced ahead of the Budget on 28 October.
Your First Home (England only) offers a government-backed equity loan equal to 20% of the purchase price and requires just a 2.5% deposit, leaving a typical mortgage at 77.5% loan-to-value.
Critical limits — household income caps, local property price caps and any deposit cap — have not been published and will determine who can actually use the scheme.
The scheme’s announcement lifted FTSE-listed housebuilder shares sharply, but many operational and eligibility details will be released at the Budget on 28 October with registration slated by the end of 2026.
Your First Home is a government plan aimed at helping first-time buyers in England buy newly built homes. The headline offer combines a government-backed equity loan of 20% of the purchase price with a minimum buyer deposit of 2.5%, meaning a buyer would typically need a mortgage covering 77.5% of the price.
A lower deposit reduces the barrier for people who can't rely on family help to cover savings gaps. The government says participants ''could save hundreds of pounds per month'' compared with a 95% mortgage, because a lower loan-to-value mortgage typically attracts lower rates.
Rightmove's average asking price for a typical first-time buyer home is given as £225,199. Under Your First Home that would break down roughly as:
Unknowns that determine who benefits
Several operational rules that will determine the scheme's reach have not been published:
How this compares with the earlier Help to Buy scheme
The previous Help to Buy programme (ended March 2023) shared features with the new plan: both applied to new builds and both offered equity loans. Differences noted so far:
October will publish the caps, eligibility rules and the full repayment framework. That detail will determine whether the scheme helps buyers who lack family support or simply boosts new-build demand to the advantage of housebuilders.
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