A YOUNG couple’s dream of owning a home has turned to reality after they became one of the first in the County Durham and Tees Valley area to use a new initiative to help them on to the property ladder.

Nathan Rice and Alex Wadsworth are the proud owners of a two bedroom house in Thornaby, Teesside, thanks to the government’s new FirstBuy scheme, which is designed to help nearly 10,500 first time buyers into home ownership in a way they can afford over the next two years.

The couple bought their new home with help from Time2Buy, the Government’s HomeBuy Agent for the County Durham and Tees Valley area, which advertises affordable properties on behalf of developers.

Nathan, 25, who works for a sports retailer, said: “We looked at a few houses to rent and some of them were so expensive and it was just money down the drain.

“We just popped in to the development to have a look but we didn’t think we would be able to afford it. Three months later we were moving in.”

Nathan and Alex, 20, share their first home together, a spacious Barratt property on the Mandale Park development in Thornaby, with Staffordshire Bull Terrier Calzaghe.

Alex, who works in a care home, said: “We are really pleased with it. I do not think we would have got anything like this if we were renting.”

FirstBuy is a new scheme in the range of Government HomeBuy products and is supported by £180m in investment from the Homes and Communities Agency. FirstBuy means buyers are offered a loan of up to 20 per cent of the price of the property.
The buyers then only have to find the remaining 80 per cent of the price themselves with the mortgage and deposit.

“These schemes are very important,” added Nathan. “We wanted a place of our own but thought we would have to rent. This made owning a property affordable for us.”

HomeBuy is a government initiative aimed at helping first time buyers and those re-entering the housing market get onto the property ladder.

The Time2Buy team, a consortium made up of Fabrick Housing Group, Stockton Borough Council, Housing Hartlepool and Endeavour Housing Association, was chosen as an agent to deliver the Government’s HomeBuy schemes across County Durham and Tees Valley in 2009.

A range of affordable home ownership options is available on a variety of different developments in the area. Schemes include equity loan schemes, shared ownership and rent to buy.

Time2Buy is the first point of contact for anyone interested in the HomeBuy schemes, first establishing whether applicants meet eligibility criteria before assessing their financial circumstances to ensure they can afford home ownership in the longer term.

Fully trained team members can help explain the range of schemes available, whether people are eligible to buy a property and how to apply.

On the Time2Buy website, people who think they may not be able to afford a home can find out about choices within their means and search for available properties in the area in which they wish to live, or built by a developer of their choice.

Emma Bingham, Affordable Housing Manager at Time2Buy said “We’re delighted to have completed the first sales on the new FirstBuy scheme. There has already been a high level on interest in the scheme and we are looking forward to helping hundreds of people into home ownership with FirstBuy over the next 18 months.”

Time2Buy can be accessed at www.time2buy.org.uk or by ringing 0845 6042942.

 

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