NewBuy hits 1,300 reservations
The NewBuy scheme has broken through the 1,300 reservations mark six months after it was launched, according to the Home Builders Federation (HBF).
NewBuy enables home buyers to purchase a new build home with as little as 5 per cent deposit.
At launch it had seven builders and three lenders on board. There are now over 30 builders selling homes using NewBuy and last week a sixth lender, Aldermore, announced it is offering NewBuy mortgages.
The government-backed scheme can be used by first-time buyers or second steppers without enough equity in their current home to move on.
Take up of NewBuy has been broadly in line with the shared equity scheme FirstBuy, which itself was allocated more money last week by government. However, with more developers now on board, and with all the lenders having recently dropped their NewBuy interest rates, the HBF expects take up of the scheme to increase.
The web site www.Newbuy.org.uk will this week have its 100,000th unique visitor. The Scottish and Welsh governments are developing their own schemes with MI New Home (www.minewhome.co.uk) due to launch shortly in Scotland.
Meanwhile, HBF is working with the Welsh government to develop a scheme following its commitment to do so in a recent White Paper.
Stewart Baseley, executive chairman at HBF, which proposed and developed the scheme with the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said: “We are now starting to gain some real momentum and with more and more builders and lenders coming on board are confident NewBuy will make a real difference.”
NewBuy protects lenders against losses arising from default. It is paid for by house builders and guaranteed by government.
