Is the HELP TO BUY scheme worth? 

Definitely agree with the "Help to Sell" phrase. The way it is structured attracts many rogue developers to build cheap housing. You buy at a premium and then once you set foot into the flat/house it no longer has that "brand new" tag which instantly devalues the property. I am looking to sell my Help to Buy flat and luckily I am now able to afford via a normal mortgage only route. Highly recommend those considering the Help to Buy route give it a second thought and if it requires you saving for another 3/4 years even to get a normal mortgage it is worth it.

I'm not sure if this was mentioned but another point to consider is that 20% help from gov is not fixed but is based on the property value at the time you want to return it back. So if for example your house price has doubled so is the 20% gov loan.

Very good video. Best piece of info is the fact that help to buy scheme does not forbid from owning properties through ltd company. I actually went through this myself some time ago. Mortgage broker that I knew and had bought my residential HTB prop with refused to help me when I started my ltd company (saying that it would be a breach of the HTB contract, which he didnt even look at). Same happened with the conveyancer I used for my residential who straight told me it is unlawful to own properties through ltd company while having residential using HTB. They were wrong as I contacted HTB who told me that (in writing) owning a property through a ltd company is none of their business and does not vreach the contract that i have with them. They even found the question silly as they have a contract with me as an individual they dont care about what I do with a company.. It is crazy how some experienced practioners can be wrongly informed and can give VERY wrong advice/info. Their loss as I wont be refering them to anyone else and wont be doing any business with them. At least people who see this video wont be fooled.

Thanks a lot for all of your videos. Every one of them let me learn more about the UK property market and rules. Truly appreciated.

Thank you Jamie to clarify the HELP TO BUY/sell/ to us! 🙏🏻 A year ago when I bought my residential property, my mortgage broker answered my question just like that: You don’t want this, trust me! - Now I know, why! 😀 Thx ☺️

Thanks Jamie. I was considering using this to buy a house and get a lodger or two, I didn’t realise that wasn’t allowed. Narrow escape, thanks again 👍🏻

I think this is a helpful scheme as long as the person who is using said scheme is smart with the properties they pick. I think it's better than shared ownership at least.

Thanks for all information , Help to buy isn’t best option but i am sure if you are private renters and rent is going up every year this scheme its best option ,try to pay your own mortgage rather than greedy landlords

Oh look it's Jamie again! He's kicking ass in sharing valuable property related information.... again 👍👊

Help to Buy makes sense in these situations: 1. When you can’t afford to raise 10% deposit to buy a property with a normal mortgage …mostly for non new-build properties which are more realistically valued. 2. When you buy the help to buy property in a good location where the property can’t be devalued overtime - (Buy in a good location) 3. When obtaining a mortgage is difficult, mortgage approval for HTB properties are easier. 4. Try and pay 7-10 % deposit. 5. Recessions don’t happen often 6. You can set up home and start paying mortgage instead of rent 7. You can start paying part of the 20% equity loan from the month you move into the property.

You said at the start about stamp duty, just a reminder most first time buyers won't pay stamp duty as there is a higher threshold

Very good video, thank you for explaining it so concisely.

Unless I missed it isn’t a big disadvantage that it has to be a New Build to use this scheme, which are already listed at a 10-20% premium.

I’m personally using a Lifetime ISA. I’ve been able to invest this at the same time as well which has been great! Over 18 months I’ve turned my £8k investment (2x £4k annual limit) into £13k so far. P.s. Jamie you mention @ 1:45 approx. Stamp duty isn’t included for first time buyers. As I’m sure you already know 😉

So I used the HTB scheme to buy a 436500 house with a relatively small deposit (21800 down) at a 1.7% interest rate. And got an 80000 loan from the gov. I could clear this loan in 5 years or invest in more properties (Ltd company) depending on my risk tolerance. I bought the top end of the HTB even though it was significantly under the top end of my mortgability ( banks were happy to lend 650ish). My current mortgage repayment is 16% of my household take-home income. I think this scheme is great if you are not from a home-owning family and have managed to gain a high salary relatively early in your career. And don't have the financial backing to have the lump sum lying around. But if your using it to stretch your ongoing affordability ( if you could only normally afford 300k for example but buy at 360k) your going to be in a world of trouble when the market swings. That being said I don't think it's a good idea to continue the scheme as it leads to higher house prices and only benefits thoughts like myself who would have got on the housing ladder a few years later rather than people who can't get on it without help.

prices in just renting is High..at the end of day the money what's going on renting is dead end money and cud be better on rent to buy new scheme on a new build..and the landlord is making a big profit on renting...

How is this Help to Buy scheme different from the latest 5% only deposit scheme introduced by the govt.? Is it that the former applies to new builds only while the latter includes old builds too?

Hey Jamie, great video! QUESTION: When you buy the residential property, and you decide to move out in 1-2 years to the new residential property and rent to old one out. What's the procedure? Do you need to negotiate the mortgage rates or? You mentioned "consent to let" how does that affect us, and what are the requirements? Thank you!

The property market should be left alone with no government interference, it simply inflates prices and speeds up the property cycle. Oh yeh and another thing on HTB loans is that you cannot overpay in increments, it has to be either half or all of it!

My daughter is living at home still but would like to do this scheme and do her first BRR Would this act as a step ladder to investment for young people

RPI at 14% makes this even worse. Can you imagine paying 16% interest?

What’s better help to buy or lifetime ISA?

I'm not sure about the 'have to be a first time buyer' part. I bought a house in a previous relationship and then sold that house when the relationship ended, and was able to buy a new house on the help to buy scheme

let's say the flat's value is £540k in London, you put down 5% as a deposit (27k), get 40% from government equity loan and finance the rest with bank mortgage. How is this possible that you fall into negative equity? If you do, it means that your flat's value will have to drop by at 44%. Is is even possible in London? Thanks :)

You can still use HTB if you've acquired a property through a Ltd. I'm guessing this doesn't work the other way round, HTB purchase and then company BTL purchase

Thank for the video.

Have you got any advice or a video on Shared Ownership properties? I currently own a 50% share in my property and battling with the prospect of buying the other half. Is it worth it? Is there any ways to take advantage of shared ownership? Thanks.

The thing that worried me most about the scheme I was on was that the government sold my loan to a private company, before the 5 years was up. I'm sure that after those 5 years the interest rate quoted (that you have to pay after the initial 5 years) would be significantly higher than I expected when I signed up. Was always my plan to pay it off before hand and its gone now so happy days. Only lost some of my equity gains but wouldn't have been able to buy otherwise. Bad for investors, great for new families that don't care.

You didn't mention that the stake the Government holds in the property stays at 20% ... so if you do remortgage to pay it off after 5 years and not pay any interest.... You owe them whatever 20% of the property is after 5 years!! This can cost WAY more than getting the 20% interest free for a bit. Of course the Government are gonna do this without a way to make money from it

I was very close to going through with a purchase on this scheme earlier this year but I pulled out. What you didn't mention that in London the HTB scheme is 40%. I almost bought a one bed flat in a shit hole part of London. I was put off as I agreed £335k (with a discount) but older flats in the same area were selling at £240k, they were in much poorer condition but i didn't feel that a new flat with similar sq.m was not worth an extra £100k.

Am sure even after you have paid the government loan they own percentage in the house if you go to sell it ?? Correct me if am wrong please

If I own the property outright (no mortgage ever taken in my life), am I eligible for HTB?

You are forgetting one very very significant caveat - the scheme only applies to new builds, which tbh aren't great value and you are tied to paying ridiculous amounts of annual fees for upkeep of the "neighbourhood"

Hi Jamie thank you for your videos. Do you think I can buy a BLT as a limited company and purchase a shared ownership property in my personal name? I look forward to your reply.

Help to sell definitely. It's just lined many a person's pockets and hindered the people it was supposed to help

So you cant do a rent to room scheme or can you?

What happens if you are on benefits

i have an important question if you can respond please - if i repay my full HTB equity loan and the property value goes up by 20%, do i need to pay anything to the gov in relation to that increase AFTER the equity loan is completely paid off?

If you pay back the loan in full before the 5 years, when you decide to sell the property do you have to give a percentage back to the government?

I thought help to buy stopped a year or two ago now 🤔

I died when You said you have limited to your seminar due to the software you used. Which software is that and what world are you living in? 😂

Is this the same as a LISA

Jamie!!!!!! Thank you so much for this video!!!!!!

I’ve used help to buy and you miss out one key point….the cost to get out of the scheme when you want to leave it.

What about if you are in a couple and only one of you are a first time buyer? I own a property and my partner doesn't, we need a bigger place (baby on the way!) and wondering if her being a first time buy would allow us to take advantage of the help to buy scheme

lol why did you say "because" in that way at 8:06

Debt debt debt...

I'd rather live in the woods.