Your First Home is a new equity loan in England. The government lends you part of the price of a new-build home, so the deposit and the mortgage are both smaller. It is expected to support 2.5% deposits, backed by 20% government equity loans, for first-time buyers purchasing from a developer who has signed up. The loan has an initial interest-free period. The government says that could save hundreds of pounds a month compared with a 95% mortgage. That saving is their description, not a figure we have calculated for you.
Source: the government's announcement. Full costs and the timetable are due at the Budget on 28 October 2026.
Confirmed, and not
| Topic | Announced | Still open |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Your First Home. | — |
| Where | England. | Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are outside this announcement. |
| Who | First-time buyers. | The definition, any age limit, and how joint buyers are treated. |
| Which home | A new build, from a developer signed up to the scheme. | The list of developers. Older homes do not qualify. |
| Deposit | Expected to be 2.5%. | Whether 2.5% is a minimum, and whether a larger deposit is allowed. |
| Equity loan | Expected to be 20% of the price. | A larger London loan, as under old Help to Buy, has not been announced. |
| Interest | An initial interest-free period. | How long that period is, and what you pay after it. |
| Caps | A household income cap and local price caps will exist. | The numbers. They are due at the Budget. |
| Developers | They are expected to contribute when they sign up, to help cover costs. | How much, and which firms join. |
| Applications | There is no registration page on GOV.UK. | Some reports mention pre-registration before the end of 2026. That is not confirmed on GOV.UK. |
| Launch | Remaining rules, costs and the timetable come from the Chancellor at the Budget. | The date you could exchange or complete. |
What an equity loan usually means
An equity loan is a share of the home, not a normal extra mortgage. On the old Help to Buy equity loan, you repaid the same percentage of the home's value when you sold, remortgaged or chose to repay. If the home rose in value, the amount you repaid rose with it. If it fell, you repaid less. The government has not published the repayment rules for Your First Home. Because it has called it an equity loan, that is the shape to expect — and it is not yet a rule you can rely on.
Help to Buy in England was interest-free for five years, then charged interest that rose each year. Some reports have copied that five-year period onto Your First Home. The government has not confirmed it. We will not treat it as fact.
A £250,000 illustration
If the announced percentages are the ones that launch, a £250,000 new build would look like this. Legal fees, surveys and moving costs are extra.
Deposit
£6,250
Equity loan
£50,000
Mortgage
£193,750
Illustration only. It assumes the scheme works exactly as announced, and that this price sits under the local cap. Neither assumption is confirmed.
Not the same as the other schemes
- Help to Buy equity loan closed to new applications in England in 2023. It asked for a 5% deposit, lent 20% (40% in London), and had no income cap. Your First Home is the nearest replacement, with a smaller deposit and with caps still to be set. If you already have a Help to Buy loan, its terms do not change, and owning that home means you are unlikely to count as a first-time buyer again.
- First Homes is a different scheme already on GOV.UK. It is a discount of at least 30% off the price, with income limits, not a 20% equity loan.
- A 95% mortgage, including those backed by the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, can be used on new and older homes. Your deposit is larger than 2.5%, but you are not giving the government a share of the home.
- Stamp duty relief for first-time buyers is a tax rule. This announcement did not change it. On the old equity loan, stamp duty was charged on the full price, not on your share. Expect the same question to be answered at the Budget, not before.
- A Lifetime ISA could be used with Help to Buy, within the ISA price cap. The government has not said whether that still holds for Your First Home.
Outside England
This announcement is for England. If you are buying in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, do not plan around Your First Home. Those nations run their own support, and a home there will not be eligible for this loan.
What this might do to prices
The scheme is also meant to support new-build sales while construction costs are high. The government's own evaluation of Help to Buy found that the earlier scheme was likely to have raised prices a little, on top of the usual new-build premium, and that the effect was larger where homes were already expensive. Whether Your First Home does the same depends on the caps and on how many homes are built. We will not tell you the scheme makes a home cheap. Compare the price with older homes nearby, knowing you cannot use this loan to buy those older homes.
What we will not do yet
- We will not take a mortgage application against rules that do not exist.
- We will not tell you a developer is on the scheme before a list is published.
- We will not quote a monthly payment as if the interest-free period had a length.
- We are not the place you apply for the government's loan.