A Key to Home Ownership
Katy and Matthew Burridge were renting on a new build estate in Derby when they decided to look into the possibility of buying their own home. The first port of call for Katy, an English teacher at a secondary school, and Matthew, a retail manager, was the office of Morris Homes, the estate’s developer.
“Initially, we spoke to the developer’s own financial advisers, but as we didn’t have the minimum 10% deposit to put down, they couldn’t help us. Instead, they told us about HomeBuy Direct,” explains Katy.
A scheme designed to make affordable homes available to first-time buyers and to boost the housing market by encouraging more transactions, HomeBuy Direct provides an equity loan for up to 30% of the asking price of certain new build homes.
“We viewed some of the properties available on the scheme and fell in love with a three-bedroom house immediately. Morris Homes had received information from TBS about HomeBuy mortgages for teachers, so we registered for the scheme with EM HomeBuy, our local agent, and decided to contact TBS about a mortgage.”
Katy called TBS and got through to Catherine Grissett, a consultant in the mortgage team. “Catherine was fantastic and dealt with the whole thing from start to finish. We had a decision in principle during the first phone call and Catherine explained the ins and outs of the HomeBuy scheme and was happy to answer any questions we had. I felt much happier about the whole process from that point.”
Katy and Matthew achieved the maximum 30% equity loan from the HomeBuy Direct scheme, so with a mortgage from TBS for 70% of the purchase price, did not need to find any deposit.
Due to the way in which such schemes are administered, Morris Homes had to specify a final date for completion, which allowed just a few weeks for the mortgage application to be processed. Despite the tight timings, this process was smooth and on 26th November, Katy and Matthew picked up the keys for their new home.
Katy says, “I always knew where we were with the mortgage and if I was ever unsure about anything I would email or phone Catherine. Any queries we had were resolved instantly and Catherine was always helpful and patient.”
Photo courtesy of B.P. Photography