First Rung of the Housing Ladder?

The Scottish Government yesterday launched a scheme designed to help more people get on the housing ladder, by offering a mortgage indemnity scheme.  The scheme, MI New Home, hopes to help up to 6000 households, by making it easier for them to buy new homes.  Nationwide and Royal Bank of Scotland have already signed up to the scheme, with Halifax/Bank of Scotland hoping to offer mortgages through the scheme in the next year.

The scheme is backed by a government guarantee, which allows lenders to offer mortgages to credit-worthy buyers, without the need for large deposits that are required in the present lending climate.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders report that there was a fall of 60% in mortgages offered in Scotland from 2006 to 2011.  The Scottish Government are hopeful that MI New Home will go some way to reverse this trend and get more people onto and moving up the housing ladder.

Projected figures from Homes for Scotland are suggesting that the sales of up to £1bn over three years could be generated and that the scheme has the potential to create or safeguard nearly 23,000 new construction jobs and over 650 apprenticeships.

More information on this scheme can be found on MI New Home website.