A Handy Guide to Help to Buy 2021

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Help to Buy – A Handy Guide 1

WELCOME

WELCOME Buying your first home is very exciting and there is nothing like the feeling of getting the keys and opening your own front door!

Our aim at First Time Buyer magazine is to make the journey to homeownership a simple one, which is easy to understand and navigate. We know how hard it can be to save for a deposit and the Government Help to Buy scheme has helped many of you on to the property ladder.

From 1 April 2021 there are some important changes to the way the scheme works – it will only be available to first time buyers and there will be regional Lynda Clark, Editor, property price caps to focus on helping First Time Buyer those who need the scheme the most.

We hope that Help to Buy – A Handy Guide will help you understand what the new changes are and how Help to Buy works, and we are delighted that Barratt Homes has sponsored this book.

We wish you every success when buying your first home. Happy house hunting!

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WELCOME

WELCOME FROM BARRATT HOMES We’re building new communities all over the country and helping people to reach their dream of buying a brand new home.

This new guide to Help to Buy with First Time Buyer magazine will help you to do that. It’s packed with information and tips on the new scheme, which is available exclusively to first time buyers on new build homes only.

Barratt is the country’s largest housebuilder and is committed to Steve Mariner, Sales Director, building high-quality homes. In 2020 Barratt Homes Barratt received more NHBC Pride in the Job Quality Awards than any other housebuilder for the 16th year running and was awarded 5 stars by the HBF for customer satisfaction for the 11th year in a row.

For more information on Barratt Homes and to find out which developments offer Help to Buy, visit barratthomes.co.uk or pop into one of our sales centres and speak to our experienced sales team.

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HOW IT WORKS

OVERVIEW OF THE SCHEME Help to Buy: Equity Loan is a Government-backed scheme to help first time buyers get on the property ladder in England by loaning them additional funds so they can buy a new home with just a 5% deposit. Although Help to Buy has been running since 2013, a whole new version of the scheme has just opened for business – limited to first time buyers only, and with regional price caps. Reservations for the new scheme started in December and the first homeowners can move in on 1 April.

London, meaning that with the minimum 5% deposit they would only need a 55% LTV mortgage.

The Help to Buy: Equity Loan is secured on the home like a mortgage, but apart from a monthly £1 administration charge there is nothing to pay until the end of five years. After five years, increasing interest will be charged on the loan. When you sell your home, or pay back the Equity Loan, you pay back the same percentage of the value of the property as you initially borrowed (not the monetary amount). The loan must be paid back within 25 years.

The scheme in England works by providing a loan of up to 20% of the property price, interest-free for five years. The buyer must provide a minimum of a 5% deposit, which means with a 20% loan from the Government they only need a 75% mortgage. This would have a lower interest rate and be easier to obtain than a high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage.

Eligibility rules for the new Help to Buy: Equity Loan: • The scheme is now only open to UK residents aged between 18 and 75 who are first time buyers – meaning that to be eligible you must never have owned a home or residential land in the UK or abroad, nor had a sharia mortgage. If you are married or in a civil partnership you must buy jointly with your partner, who must also qualify as a first time

To reflect the higher property prices in the capital, buyers in London can take out a maximum 40% loan through Help to Buy 6

HOW IT WORKS Example house value: £160,000

support, consider if an equity is loan is right for you.” There are no maximum income rules.

• The home you are buying must be brand new, from a developer who is part of the scheme. All houses must be freehold. In some cases apartments can be leasehold, although only if there is no ground rent payable. You can’t use a developer’s part exchange scheme.

£32,000 20% Govt. equity loan £8,000 5% Buyer’s deposit

buyer. You will have to sign a legal declaration to this effect.

• The home must be your only residence; you cannot use the loan to purchase a buy-to-let property (although you can usually take part in the Rent a Room scheme). Permission to rent it out later is only given in exceptional circumstances.

• You must provide at least a 5% deposit and you must take out a repayment mortgage for at least 25% of the value of the property (ie you cannot be a cash buyer or use an interestonly mortgage or a Home Purchase Plan). According to the Government scheme, “If you have a large deposit and can secure a mortgage without our

The property must cost less than the regional price cap, set at 1.5 times the average regional first time buyer price. This must be the official list price – you cannot negotiate a discount with the developer to creep under the cap.

The caps are: North East £186,100 North West £224,400 Yorkshire & the Humber £228,100 West Midlands £255,600 East Midlands £261,900 South West £349,000 East of England £407,400 South East £437,600 London £600,000 7

HOW IT WORKS

12 STEPS TO BUYING A HOME WITH HELP TO BUY: EQUITY LOAN

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Check you are eligible – contact your local Help to Buy agent to be sure you meet all the criteria

Complete the paperwork – fill in a Help to Buy “Property Information Form” from the developer. This includes details of the home, deposit, mortgage and income. It also confirms your agreement to the Help to Buy funds being paid directly to the housebuilder you are buying from

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See an adviser – speak to an independent financial adviser or mortgage broker to check how much you are likely to be able to borrow, and get a mortgage offer in principle. The Help to Buy agent will require your repayment mortgage to be less than 4.5 times your gross annual income

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Reserve your home – the developer will want a reservation fee which can be up to £500 but is refundable if you are not eligible for Help to Buy or you do not exchange contracts.

You will be given a signed copy which you will send to the Help to Buy agent along with the Property Information Form

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Find a property – look around to find your perfect new build home; most major housebuilders are in the scheme, including Barratt Homes, David Wilson Homes, Taylor Wimpey and Countryside. Make sure that the property you are considering is beneath the price cap and will be ready for you to complete your purchase before the new scheme ends on 31 March 2023.

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Get the go-ahead – the agent will check all your details and then issue an Authority to Proceed, which should only take a

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HOW IT WORKS few days to arrive and is valid for three months

will need to pay a 5% deposit and contracts will be exchanged. You are now legally contracted to buy the home and permission will be given if you want to visit the property to measure up etc

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Appoint a solicitor – take the Authority to Proceed to a solicitor of your choice and instruct them to do your conveyancing.

You do not have to use a solicitor recommended by your developer

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Complete – on completion day your solicitor will ensure that the developer receives money from your mortgage lender, any additional deposit that you are putting in and the Help to Buy: Equity Loan. Once everything has been paid you will be given the keys and you can finally move in to your new home

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Apply for your mortgage – you, or your financial adviser/ broker, can now put in a full mortgage application. Make sure it will still be valid at the expected time of completion

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Your solicitor is at work – all the legal work regarding the conveyancing and finances will be going on, and your solicitor will talk you through it. When all is in order, your solicitor will request permission from the Local Help to Buy Agent to exchange contracts

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Afterwards – after completion, your solicitor will send proof of the sale to the Local Help to Buy Agent who then registers your details with Homes England’s Mortgage Administrator. A second charge is registered on your home entitling Homes England to a share of the future sale proceeds equivalent to the percentage contribution made towards the purchase. You can now forget about your Help to Buy: Equity Loan for the next five years!

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Exchange contracts – when permission is received, known as Authority to Exchange, you 9

COMMENT

WHAT THE NEW HELP TO BUY SCHEME MEANS FOR FIRST TIME BUYERS As the new Help to Buy scheme launches in England, Lynnette St-Quintin, Sales and Marketing Director at Barratt Southern Counties, tells us what she thinks of the new scheme, and what we can expect to see from the first time buyer market…

Since the original scheme launched in 2013, Help to Buy has offered nearly 300,000 buyers the opportunity to purchase a new home thanks to its low deposit requirement and access to better loan to value mortgage rates. Now, following a recent shake-up from the Government, the new scheme will set out to exclusively help first time buyers; those who truly need the support to get on to the property ladder.

loan-to-value mortgage offers in response to the pandemic, means that first time buyers are now faced with fewer options to get on to the property ladder. The thought of saving for a large deposit might leave them giving up before they have even started.

The great thing about Help to Buy is that it gives aspirational buyers the chance to become homeowners with a more manageable 5% deposit – a figure that is, I feel, much more achievable for most young people.

It is clear that the average first time buyer is finding it harder to purchase on the open market.

According to Halifax, the average deposit paid by first time buyers in the UK is now £57,279 – with this rising to an eye-watering £130,375 in London.¹ This, combined with the reduction in the availability of higher

We know this from speaking to buyers across our new homes developments in Surrey and Sussex who have told us they simply could not afford to save up the 10%, 15% or even 20% deposit that many of the lenders were requesting.

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COMMENT

Aside from the revised eligibility criteria, the new Help to Buy scheme will also bring about another big change by introducing regional price caps.

Help to Buy is a proven success and we see first-hand each day how the scheme is so vital in supporting first time buyers to move into their own homes. It now means that anyone hoping to become a homeowner for the first time is at the front of the queue to get on to the property ladder with just a 5% deposit.

These are based on fair, average prices across England, and this means that first time buyers will still be able to buy starter homes with one, two or even three bedrooms, offering fair access to the properties we know that people want.

¹ mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news/firsttime-buyers-undeterred-as-depositsjump-10000-halifax/

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HOW IT WORKS

WITHIN FIVE YEARS What if I want to move?

There is nothing to stop you moving home, although the Help to Buy: Equity Loan will have to be repaid when you do (you can’t take it with you). As the loan is based on a percentage of the value of the property, when you come to sell, your home must be independently valued and should be sold on the open market at that value. The amount you need to pay back will be based on the higher figure of either that valuation or the amount it actually sells for.

If property values have dropped and it is worth less than when you bought it, you will pay back less than the cash value you were loaned, but if it is worth more, then you will repay more. You will bear all the costs involved in the sale, plus a £200 fee for discharging the Equity Loan.

under certain circumstances, for example if you want to borrow additional funds to enable you to pay off all or part of your equity loan, if you are removing another homebuyer from the Equity Loan agreement (for example as the result of a divorce), or if you need to make structural changes to the property on medical grounds.

Can I pay the loan off early?

If you want to pay off all or some of your equity loan you can do this at any point. However, if you are only paying off part, you must pay at least 10% of the market value of the home at a time. To determine the market value you will need to pay for a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) valuation report and pay a £200 fee. You could also remortgage to pay off the loan if you wish to, although most people wait until the end of the interest-free period.

Can I remortgage?

You are generally allowed to remortgage to get a better rate while you have a Help to Buy: Equity Loan, although you will have to get permission first and pay a fee of £115. Taking a larger mortgage is only allowed

Can I make changes to my home?

You are not allowed to make structural changes to your home (such as extending or converting a 12

HOW IT WORKS

loft or garage), unless it is to cater for the needs of a person with a disability, for which you must seek permission and pay a £50 fee.

You can, however, decorate your new home, or update kitchens and bathrooms, without needing permission or paying a fee.

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CASE STUDY – BARRATT HOMEOWNER

Chloe Coward and Matt Hirons - Haywards Heath

First time buyers Chloe Coward, 26, and Matt Hirons, 28, benefited from Help to Buy recently when they purchased a new home in Haywards Heath at Barratt Homes’ Wychwood Park development.

The couple had been saving for a long time for a deposit, and had their doubts that they would ever be able to get together what they needed for their dream property.

put down a 25% deposit and access more favourable mortgage rates.

Having reserved their property in June, the couple finally moved in just before the second lockdown.

Chloe comments, “We had been looking at buying for a long time. We were living at home with my mum south of Horsham during the first lockdown and it felt a bit crowded with everyone on top of each other.

Help to Buy: Equity Loan boosted their deposit funds, which allowed them buy a coach house at the development. The couple saved up £15,000 – just 5% of the £300,000 asking price – and used Barratt’s NHS scheme, Help to Buy and additional support from family, meaning that they were able to

“We never thought we’d be able to save enough for a deposit, but with the support of Help to Buy, the dream became a reality. To raise the deposit, we were saving up regularly and stopped going on holiday, plus we had a little help from our parents.”

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CASE STUDY – BARRATT HOMEOWNER

Karolina and Ramanus - Peacehaven

Karolina Pociute, 33, and her partner Ramunas Balsaitis, 37, were renting in Peacehaven, East Sussex. After saving for two years, and with the assistance of Help to Buy, the couple were finally able to get on to the property ladder at Barratt Homes’ Chalkers Rise development in Peacehaven.

Chalkers Rise. The family moved into their new home at the start of lockdown in March 2020.

Karolina, who works for the NHS, comments, “Around three years ago, we decided that we wanted to get on to the property ladder as we were just fed up with renting.

We made a few small sacrifices, such as not going on family holidays for two years, and any extra money we had at the end of each month went straight into the savings account. By using Help to Buy, we only needed a 5% deposit which meant that we could become homeowners – without the scheme I think it would have been very difficult for us to get on to the property ladder.”

Karolina, Ramunas and their son Ainas, 11, had been living in Peacehaven for the last nine years, but felt that they were wasting money on rent. After a wake-up call in their personal lives, and a reassessment of their finances, Karolina and Ramunas were able to save a 5% deposit in just two years and purchased a three bedroom family home at 15

HOW IT WORKS

AFTER FIVE YEARS All loans must be paid back within the same timescale as the main mortgage, but the interest structure of Help to Buy: Equity Loan is intended to encourage people to pay it off or staircase sooner, as it increases every year after the initial interest-free period.

In year six you pay 1.75% of the amount of the loan, rising each year by the increase (if there is one) in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 2%.

interest in year six to 1.83% in year seven and 1.91% in year eight.

The introduction of the interest rate after the five-year period is significant. If you bought a £200,000 home with a 20% equity loan, Homes England says it would mean a jump in your monthly costs of £58 a month in year six, while if you went for the maximum 40% equity loan on a property costing the maximum £600,000 in London you could find yourself paying an additional £350 a month in year six (all of which is only paying the interest, not reducing the capital that you owe).

This is quite a complicated calculation. Moneysavingexpert. com explains it this way: “Let’s imagine CPI stands at a constant 1%, so when you add two percentage points to it, it means the underlying interest rate will climb by 3% each year. If the interest rate in year six is 1.75%, then based on the 3% increase your equity loan interest rate for year seven would be 1.8025%.

Getting geeky, that’s 3% of 1.75% which is 0.0525%. Added to 1.75% it gives you a new interest rate of 1.8025%.” In reality, CPI could be higher. In a worked example from Homes England it suggests that interest rates could rise from 1.75%

When the time to start paying interest approaches, you might want to look at remortgaging.

If your home has increased in value and/or your personal circumstances have improved over the five-year period, you might be able to pay off all or part of the equity loan through taking out a new, larger mortgage.

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HOW IT WORKS

Around the regions The new Help to Buy: Equity Loan only applies to UK residents purchasing a home in England.

However, there are similar schemes running in some other parts of Britain.

Wales: Help to Buy – Wales provides 20% equity loans to first time buyers and home movers on homes up to £300,000, see gov.wales/help-buy-wales

all completions were made by 31 March. This means that in practice, it is likely you will need to have put down a deposit on your dream home by Christmas 2022 to be able to use the scheme.

There are other ways of getting on the housing ladder of course. In the March Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak launched a new Mortgage Guarantee which will give first time buyers and home-movers access to 95% loan-to-value mortgages.

Looking ahead The new Help to Buy: Equity Loan is scheduled to run until the end of March 2023, and at the moment the Government is saying that this will not be extended. With the previous scheme, which ended on 31 March 2021, it actually began winding down in the December before, with all new homes originally having to be completed by the end of December (although this was extended to 28 February because of Covid-19 delays), to ensure that

Unlike Help to Buy, where the Government loans you money and has a share in the home, this scheme benefits lenders by offering them a guarantee to compensate them for losses if the home is repossessed, giving them added security to offer larger loan-to-value mortgages to suitable customers. It is available on homes up to £600,000. Shared ownership will also remain available.

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FINANCE

HELP TO BUY CALCULATOR With the new Help to Buy: Equity Loan, available exclusively to first time buyers, you could buy a brand new home sooner than you think.

• You only need a 5% deposit • The Government lends you up to 20% of the value of the property • The loan is interest-free for five years, making your new home more affordable • You then need to secure a 75% mortgage Use the Barratt Help to Buy calculator to see how the scheme could work for you and help get you on the road to finding a new home within your budget.

By using the helpful online calculator you can calculate how much Help to Buy: Equity Loan you need, how much mortgage, and then what your monthly mortgage cost could be. In order to obtain your personal calculation, you simply input your income, the mortgage term, interest rate and cost of the property. barratthomes.co.uk/offers/help-to-buy/ 18

FINANCE

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CASE STUDY – BARRATT HOMEOWNER

Rachel Pritchett - Nuneaton Rachel Pritchett, 28, began her journey as a homeowner at Barratt Homes’ The Long Shoot community in Nuneaton.

She also used the Help to Buy scheme, making the most of the Government loan to take out a smaller mortgage.

Rachel, a primary school teacher in Leicestershire, said, “I was living with my parents previously so I was able to save up for five to six years for my first home.

Although saving for my own independence did mean I couldn’t buy as many clothes!

“The Long Shoot was my favourite of the new build developments close to home, but it was the offers available at the time that made my decision easier. There was Help to Buy, plus I was also able to buy my home with a £99 reservation fee with flooring included, so it felt like a really personalised experience.”

are downsizing because of the generous yet practical layout.

Rachel added, “It’s an ideal size for a single homebuyer. I’ve made the most of the French doors leading to the garden, which has been a godsend during lockdown.

“I’ve been working from home recently but when I do go out, it’s lovely to return to my own house and pull on to the private driveway. There’s just a really nice kerb appeal.”

While the Kenley-style home Rachel purchased is ideal for young couples, it’s also appealing to solo purchasers and those who 21

FINANCE

HELPING YOU FIND YOUR FIRST HOME Helping first time buyers get on the property ladder continues to be a big focus for Santander

as little as a 5% deposit on a home, making that homeowning dream more achievable.

Our first time buyer study revealed that 30% of aspiring buyers said that raising a deposit is putting homeownership out of their reach and 70% of respondents believe that today the dream of homeownership is over for many young people.¹

Our Help to Buy products include a free standard valuation as well as £250 cashback available on selected products. In addition, we have a range of fixed rates with no product fees available.

For more details on the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme or how we can support you on your first time buyer journey visit santander. co.uk or speak to your independent mortgage broker.

However, despite these statistics, the desire to own a home remains extremely strong. Nine out of 10 young adults aspire to own a home in the future and over half (51%) of the first time buyers surveyed listed it as one of their top life goals; more than having children (27%) or getting married (19%).

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Applications are subject to status and lending criteria. Applicants must be UK residents aged 18 or over.

The amount we will lend depends on your circumstances, the amount borrowed and the property. A higher deposit may be required for a flat or new build.

This is why the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme has proven to be so successful, with over 85% of our Help to Buy customers being first time buyers.

Not only is the scheme now reserved exclusively for first time buyers, but it allows you to put down

¹ Data source: Santander First Time Buyer Study July 2019

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BUYING NEW

WHY BUY A NEW HOME? From putting your stamp on a blank canvas to saving money on your energy bills, here are three top reasons for buying a new home over an older one…

1 Chain free

Buying an older property can often be a challenging experience as you’re reliant on the other person in the chain keeping to the promised timescale. But with a new build, you are not at the mercy of the people you’re buying from, helping keep your move stress free.

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BUYING NEW

2 It is cost effective The difference between the running costs of an older property and a new home can be substantial. By buying new, you could save hundreds of pounds a year on your energy bills – and your home will be warmer too, without the drafts and chills you sometimes find in older properties.

3 Everything is new With a new property, everything inside is new: the bath, the boiler, the shower, the toilets, the oven, and any other fittings and fixtures. Your home will be ready to settle into from day one, with a blank canvas on which to make your mark.

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

SETTING THE 5 STAR STANDARD Barratt is the only major national housebuilder to have been rated as 5 star for 11years in a row by its customers. Each year the HBF New Homes Survey asks all customers who have bought a new home questions such as “would you recommend your builder to a friend?”. For Barratt to be awarded 5 stars means that more than 90% of its customers have answered “yes” to this question.

This is now the 11th year in a row that Barratt has received the 5 star rating, having first been awarded it back in 2010. No other major national housebuilder can match this record of delivering such high customer satisfaction over such a long time.

The HBF New Homes Survey is one of the largest surveys of its type in the country with nearly 50,000 people who have recently bought a new build home completing it. The simple 1-5 star rating system was developed to give customers an easy to view ranking system of which housebuilders have the most satisfied customers.

Barratt leads the industry for customer service, the high quality of its homes and creating great places that people love living in. It is this focus on making its customers happy and looking after them post-sale, which results in such high recommendation scores.

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

OUR SUPPORT SCHEMES Last year Barratt launched its NHS Deposit Contribution Scheme, to say thank you to NHS workers who have shown such courage in the face of the Covid-19 crisis, giving a 5% deposit contribution to help them buy a new home.

contributions from Barratt with the scheme recently being extended for a further six months.

Barratt also launched another new product last year to help its customers – the Armed Forces Deposit Contribution Scheme. Like the NHS scheme, this offers a 5% deposit contribution to help Armed Forces personnel get on or up the housing ladder.

The scheme is a way of offering a heartfelt thank you to the country’s 1.5 million NHS workers who can receive up to £15,000 towards buying any Barratt or David Wilson Home.

Barratt is a proud Armed Forces employer and has brought around 100 veterans into its business through its recruitment programmes. It also has a long standing partnership with Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI), supporting the charity in confronting the challenges of veteran homelessness.

The partnership delivers new homes, mental health support and jobs for ex-Armed Forces personnel.

Barratt has been working hard throughout the coronavirus crisis to support the NHS. It donated £150,000 to NHS Charities Together and a further £50,000 to The Sun’s Who Cares Wins campaign, providing help for frontline NHS staff. It donated more than 5,000 medical-grade face masks to hospitals across the country and gave its entire stock of 400 defibrillators to St John Ambulance in England and Wales and to St Andrew’s First Aid in Scotland.

To date, the NHS Thank You has funded over £21.7m of deposit 29

TIPS

BARRATT CREATES INDUSTRY FIRST BY PROVIDING GIGABIT CAPABLE BROADBAND ON NEW DEVELOPMENTS Customers will have 18 leading ISPs to choose from Barratt recently announced it is partnering with Openreach, Virgin Media and Hyperoptic to ensure that ultrafast, ultra-reliable gigabit capable broadband is installed as standard across its new developments throughout the UK.

a large selection of different speeds, costs and contractual options to suit their circumstances, from monthly pay-as-you-go contracts to 24-month contracts.

The agreement comes at a time when people have never been so dependent on ultrafast and reliable broadband, with so many people now relying on their connectivity to work, learn and stay entertained at home. The Government is aiming for 85% of homes to have access to a gigabit broadband connection by 2025.

This means that all¹ new sites that Barratt builds every year will have access to a future-proof broadband service from multiple networks, from the moment new homeowners move in, giving its customers 18 leading ISPs to choose from.

ISPs available to its customers will include: BT, Virgin Media, Hyperoptic, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, EE, Zen, Andrews and Arnold, Aquiss, Cerberus, Fibre Net, Giganet, Orbital Net, Pine Media, Spectrum, Structured, Syscomm and Uno. The new unified service will ensure its customers can choose between

With gigabit capable connections, residents’ services are faster and more reliable, giving them the best internet experience possible, whether they are using their connection for home working, virtual learning or streaming online entertainment.

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TIPS

Looking after customers

data-hungry activities such as video streaming, home working and online learning during the Covid-19 lockdown have never been needed more.”

Steven Boyes, Chief Operating Officer at Barratt Developments, said, “Every customer will now have the greatest choice of broadband speed, reliability, costs and packages at a time when

¹ There are a small number of sites where it may take longer for this service to be available

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MAP

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HELP TO BUY - NORTH

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PlusDane 0300 790 0570 helptobuyagent1.org.uk

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Cheshire, Cumbria, Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, North Yorkshire, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire

HELP TO BUY MIDLANDS AND LONDON

bpha 0333 321 4044 helptobuyagent2.org.uk Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, London, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire

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CASE STUDY – BARRATT HOMEOWNER

Janet Clark, Andrew Stanley and Florence Manchester – Imperial Park II A General Nurse and her brother from Northwich have successfully moved into their brand new home at Imperial Park II in the midst of the UK lockdown, with the help of Barratt Homes Manchester.

Janet Clark, 58, and Andrew Stanley, 56, were eager to stop renting, and this was all made possible with the support of Barratt Homes and Help to Buy.

“We lived together before we bought our new house as we’re both carers for our mum. We also share the responsibility of looking after our dogs Simba and Sasha, so we didn’t want the hassle of deciding who lives where.”

Janet, formerly a nurse with the Royal Navy for 11 years, who is native to Northwich said, “My brother and I are first time buyers, and we wanted somewhere that we would have some say in the design.

We liked the look of the houses on the development, and Barratt Homes was there with us every step of the way. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience.”

For these siblings, owning a house together was an easy decision.

Janet commented, “Living together meant that we could afford a much nicer home and our mortgage is split 50/50.

The siblings wanted plenty of room, so opted for the three bedroom Stambourne design off-plan. The home offered extra accessibility to Janet’s mum, Florence, 91, who is living with them at Imperial Park II.

“If you share similar ideas and have a happy, agreeable relationship, it’s just like buying a house with a partner - but I know my brother won’t suddenly walk out!”

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GLOSSARY

JARGON BUSTER Buying your first home can be overwhelming.

But having an understanding of the different terms and phrases used in the buying process can give you the confidence you need to sit back and enjoy the homebuying journey.

instead looking at plans of how it could look Snagging – This refers to small items of work that still need to be finished in a new home Completion – A property sale has been completed and the buyer finally gets the keys Conveyancer – A person who carries out the legal process to buy the property Deed of trust – Legally binding document which sets out the financial agreement between joint property owners Exchange – Formally known as “exchange of contracts” Stamp Duty – Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is a tax on residential property purchases over £500,000 (until 30 June, then £250,000 from 1 July and £125,000 from 1 October) in England and Northern Ireland

Credit check – A lender checks your financial history Decision in Principle (DIP) – A lender’s estimate of the amount that you are likely to be able to be able to borrow Interest-only mortgage – Where you pay only the loan interest off each month and the balance at the end of the mortgage term Mortgage valuation survey – A lender carries out a survey to check that the property is worth what you’re paying before it lends you the money Estate management charges – A yearly charge on the open spaces at a development, used to fund the upkeep of public areas Off-plan – Buying “off-plan” means a home that hasn’t been built yet with house hunters 34

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