Christmas – In your own home

While it still seems a long way off, Christmas is one of those essential markers in the year and can have a huge influence on the housing market.

If you aren’t in your new home by then, you’ll probably need to wait until the market wakes up again in the spring of next year. If that wasn’t enough, Service personnel aiming to use the Forces Help to Buy scheme (FHTB) should also note that it’s due to close at the end of December 2018.

It’d take a hard heart not to feel the romantic pull of being able to shut out the cold and keep warm in your own home, especially at Christmas. So, let’s say that it takes between eight to 10 weeks to complete the purchasing process, with just 100 ‘shopping days’ to go before deadline, it’s time you made a start!

Forces Help to Buy was introduced in 2014 as a £200 million scheme to help Service personnel get on the property ladder. The latest figures show that since that time around £215 million has been spent and is a testament to its
popularity.

Forces Help to Buy has been a huge success and while it has already been extended beyond its original planned closure date, there are no guarantees (as we go to press) that it will again.

The fact is that because it’s backed by the MoD, its success means that it has cost more public money than originally planned. By the same token, that same success is something that the MoD might want to proudly continue with, so who knows what’ll happen? Best advice has to be to act now to avoid disappointment.

About Forces Help To Buy

The FHTB scheme allows Service personnel to borrow an interest-free advance of up to 50% of their salary (to a limit of £25,000), which they can use towards a deposit on a property. This is then paid back over 10 years through their monthly salary.

More: www.gov.uk/guidance/forces-help-to-buy

Another option…

Shared Ownership

Shared ownership is designed to make that first step of getting onto the property ladder possible by enabling an initial purchase for part of the home. While repaying a manageable monthly mortgage amount for part of your property – usually between 25%-75% – you continue to pay rent on the rest. The aim is to purchase the remaining shares over time, eventually owning 100% of your home.

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