How the FirstBuy scheme helped a young couple to buy their own home
Kayliegh Langton joined the NUT when she qualified as a teacher in 2010. Kayliegh, who took up a new teaching post in a primary school in Bury last September, had been living in rented accommodation with fiancé Daniel Howlett for 4 years but the couple desperately wanted their own, brand new home. While looking into all the benefits that go along with membership of the NUT, Kayliegh learned about the mortgage service offered by Teachers Building Society and decided to contact them to see if they could help.
Having little in the way of a deposit, Kayliegh and Daniel were told about the Government’s equity loan scheme, FirstBuy. The scheme works by providing an equity loan, equally funded by the Government and the developer, of up to 20% of the purchase price of a specific new build property. With Teachers Building Society among just a few lenders willing to provide a mortgage to support FirstBuy with no deposit needed, it soon became clear that the scheme could be the only way that Kayliegh and Daniel would be able to buy their own home.
“I didn’t know anything about FirstBuy, but Catherine at Teachers Building Society explained how it works and pointed us in the direction of PlumLife, the regional HomeBuy agent,” explains Kayliegh. “We registered for the scheme and were told about a brand new Redrow development, still under construction, in Chorley, not too far from where we both work.”
Kayliegh and Daniel were able to view a neighbouring property of similar style to the houses under construction and were shown plans for ‘The Tenby’, a 3-bedroom character house with a large back garden. They paid a reservation fee, which was returned after completion, and apart from the usual legal and arrangement fees, needed to provide no other funds.
“As a first-time buyer, I had so many questions about the mortgage and the whole process, but nothing was too much trouble for the mortgage consultants at Teachers,” says Kayliegh. “Once our house was ready, it took two weeks to get approval to proceed on the FirstBuy scheme. We applied for the mortgage at the end of September and within a month we had completed and picked up the keys to our beautiful new home! Everything was perfect, we had no problems whatsoever and the service from Teachers Building Society has been outstanding.”
“We’d always wanted to buy a brand new house but didn’t think it would be possible as saving up for a deposit was hard. If we hadn’t found out about Teachers Building Society and the FirstBuy scheme through the NUT, owning our own home would still be a dream.”