Help to Buy has ended: Search for new homes

For example, you had to be 18 years or older, have at least a 5% deposit of the full purchase price of the property, and had to be a first time buyer. If you were buying the property with another person, you both needed to be first time buyers to benefit from the equity loan – meaning neither of you had ever owned another property either in the UK or abroad.

Please note that the Help to Buy: Equity Loan officially ended in March 2023. 

The Help to Buy: Equity Loan was interest-free for the first five years of owning your home. After that, the purchaser paid an annual fee of 1.75% on the amount of the outstanding loan, however, this fee would increase each year by inflation.

Please note that the Help to Buy: Equity Loan officially ended in March 2023.

In contrast, Shared Ownership enables you to buy a share as a lease on a Shared Ownership property (normally owned by a housing association), and you can only achieve 100% ownership by ‘staircasing’ to full ownership.

Help to Buy was generally provided by private developers and Shared Ownership by housing associations, but there were some housing associations with allocations for the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme.

Please note that the Help to Buy: Equity Loan officially ended in March 2023.