"Specialist lenders have a key role to play in supporting the UK’s FTB mortgage market."
The Scottish First Home Fund provides first-time buyers with a deposit of up to £25,000 to help them buy a property, providing they put in at least 5% from their own funds.
Unlike the Help to Buy scheme, which only applies to new build homes, the First Home Fund is also available for existing homes and will help up to 6,000 first-time buyers secure their first home.
The First Home Fund support will be available across Vida’s Help to Buy range and the Mansfield's Versatility mortgage range.
Louisa Sedgwick, managing director of mortgages at Vida Homeloans, said: “With house prices continuing to rise over the years and mainstream lending criteria becoming more stringent, purchasing a first home can seem like an impossible task for many. Specialist lenders can tackle this issue head-on, however, even for customers with a complex financial situation.
“As a lender that puts the customer at the heart of everything we do, we’re proud to support Scotland’s First Home Fund scheme, since it will allow even more people to own a home. With affordable rates; innovative, out-of-the-box thinking, and diverse product choices, specialist lenders have a key role to play in supporting the UK’s FTB mortgage market.”
Jane Benjamin, director of mortgages at Sesame Bankhall Group, commented: “It’s clear that thousands of FTBs have already been helped by government schemes to buy their first property. With the government committed to delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, the new build market is looking positive. However, without the support of lenders, this pledge could be meaningless.
“Many FTBs are still facing affordability issues and unless they fit the criteria from high street banks’, they may find it difficult to secure approval for a home loan. Specialist lenders are vital in changing this outcome, so it’s great to see Vida supporting Scotland’s First Home Fund scheme and making a real difference to the UK’s FTBs.”
Paul Lewis, national development manager at The Mansfield, added: “I have no doubt that the Scotland First Home Fund will prove incredibly popular with first-time buyers, especially as the scheme appears generous and straightforward.
The scheme provides access to mortgage product pricing that would ordinarily be more expensive for many first time buyers because they would have to borrow at much higher LTVs.
We’re really excited because we can see how the scheme will complement our pragmatic underwriting approach and flexible criteria – this will provide real benefit to many aspiring homeowners and we expect the scheme to be well received.”
