FIRST-TIME buyers desperate to take their first steps onto the property ladder are to set to receive a helping hand from the Government.
Chancellor George Osborne unveiled details of the Government’s bid to get the housing market moving during the Budget announcement which will enable families and couples to secure a home after putting down just a five per cent deposit of the total value of the property.
The Government proposes to make interest-free loans worth 20 per cent of the value of a new home available.
In Burton, the average house price is £162,000, meaning buyers would have to find just over £8,000 to secure a home.
Estate agents in Burton have welcomed the news, insisting it will provide a much-needed kick-start for the housing markets, but the scheme has been met with caution elsewhere with some raising concerns about how young people with little experience of paying loans will cope with mortgage repayments further down the line.
Ashley Canner, social policy co-ordinator at the South Derbyshire Citizens Advice Bureau, said: “Undoubtedly it is going to help some people. It is going to help those who can’t afford a mortgage to help them secure a property.
“But in actual fact it might only help a small amount of people. It won’t help people who can’t raise five per cent in the first place. Actually getting the deposit is the difficult part, not paying the mortgage.
“For people who are not financially savvy, they might be buying more than they can afford in the long term. In five or 10 years will they still be in the same situation, or will they be left with a debt, quite a high debt, that they won’t be able to pay off?”
However, Ricky Ayling from Burton estate agency Crew Partnership, could see only positives from the plan.
He said: “It’s great for people looking to get on the housing ladder, it’s a real shot in the arm for those people.
“For me, it’s an equal worry seeing people spend 10 or 15 years in rented accommodation scrimping and saving.
“There is always going to be someone who loses their job and can’t make repayments, but on the whole I think it’s great.”
