Abode Recruitment

HomeBuy Direct, a £300 million initiative aimed at helping up to 10,000 first time buyers currently frozen out of the mortgage market meet their housing aspirations and supporting the house-building industry, was launched today by the Housing Corporation.

HomeBuy Direct is part of a package of measures announced by the Government early in September. Today the Housing Corporation opens the competition to select suitable schemes and properties from house-builders.

HomeBuy Direct aims to:

• make selected new build homes available to eligible purchasers who are unable to afford a home without assistance;

• provide a targeted boost to the housing market by stimulating more transactions; and

• help maintain the capacity of the house building industry to respond when market conditions improve.

Providers are now being invited to bring forward suitable schemes and properties to participate in the delivery of the new product. Both the scheme developer and the Housing Corporation will make an equal contribution by way of an equity loan to assist a purchaser into home ownership.

Housing Corporation Chief Executive Steve Douglas said, “HomeBuy Direct builds upon the success of English Partnerships’ First-Time-Buyers’ Initiative (FTBI), which is now concluding its investment phase.

“With HomeBuy Direct we want to expand on that and help up to 10,000 new households meet their housing aspirations. We want to help first-time-buyers to purchase, to maintain the capacity of the house building industry; and finally, help provide a targeted boost to the housing market. This will, in turn, help contribute to our long-term housing supply targets and to make housing more affordable in the longer term.”

Project Director for FTBI at English Partnerships Kirk Howe said, “The First Time Buyers’ Initiative has been extremely popular with buyers and house builders alike, and will deliver around 3,500 extra affordable homes by the end of the programme. I am pleased that HomeBuy Direct will build on this success, offering assistance to many more first time buyers who have been priced out of the property market.”

HomeBuy Direct will be managed by the Housing Corporation and its successor, the Homes and Communities Agency, when it is vested from 1 December 2008.