First Time Buyers Budget News

Starting to climb the property ladder remains a tough prospect for most first time buyers. The average cost of a first home in Britain today is £135,742; over six times average wage. This has left buyers taking on larger mortgages than at any time in history and the average house buyer must now save £15, 200 if they are to fund a 10% deposit even before additional costs, such as solicitors fees are taken into account.

Recently, the chancellor had an opportunity to give a helping hand to first time buyers during the recent budget but unfortunately the derisory £5,000 increase in the stamp duty threshold only takes the limit to £125,000.

Stamp duty will be charged at one per cent on properties between 125,000 and 250.000m and goes up to three percent between 250,000 and £500,000 and four percent for most expensive properties

However one bit of good news, further cash has been pledged by the chancellor to boost shared ownership schemes, helping those on lower and middle incomes on to the property ladder. In some schemes buyers have to raise only 25 % of a property’s value through a mortgage, while a Government backed scheme funds the rest. Almost £4 billion has been put into such schemes.

The really good news for first time buyers is that interest rates are still around their lowest levels for more than 30 years and not being part of a chain, means there is a good possibility of negotiating a lower price from the home seller.

For more information on buying a home, go to www.you-can-mortgage.co.uk

Author: Jerome Thompson

First Time buyers get some help in buget but dissappointing news about Stamp Duty Threshold.

Published on 4/4/2006.

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Think carefully before securing other debts against your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

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