The government introduced Your First Home, a new initiative designed to assist first-time buyers in England with purchasing new-build properties. The scheme, announced last month and detailed in the chancellor’s budget presentation, will allocate £4.7bn in funding over a five-year period to support approximately 70,000 households entering the property market.
Under the program, eligible first-time buyers will receive a government-backed equity loan equivalent to 20% of their property’s purchase price. This loan carries no interest charges for the first five years, after which borrowers begin paying 1.5% interest in year six, increasing to 3% from year seven onward. Participating buyers will only need to provide a minimum deposit of 2.5%, with a maximum deposit cap of 15%, allowing them to secure a standard mortgage for the remaining 77.5% of the property value. According to government projections, this structure could result in monthly savings of several hundred pounds compared to conventional mortgage arrangements.
Eligibility requirements include household income limits of £110,000 or less outside London and £140,000 or less within the capital. Property purchase price caps will vary by location, with inner London capped at £650,000 and outer London at £500,000. Additional caps have been announced for other regions, including £375,000 for Reading, £320,000 for North Devon, £355,000 for Manchester, and £220,000 for Middlesbrough. The scheme applies exclusively to new-build homes from participating developers.
Customer pre-registration is scheduled to commence by the end of December, with formal applications opening from February 2027 and the first loans expected to be issued from April next year. Your First Home effectively replaces the Conservative government’s Help to Buy scheme, which concluded in 2023. Unlike its predecessor, the new scheme offers a lower equity loan percentage but requires a smaller initial deposit from participants.
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