The assistant quantity surveyor recently flew the parental nest into a home of his own from Castle Green Homes at Bridgewater View in Daresbury with the help of the First Homes Scheme.
“I was living with my parents in Sandymoor, about 10 minutes away from Bridgewater View but hadn’t really thought about moving until my mum sent me a link about the discount to market value homes using the First Homes Scheme,” Jamie explained.
He met the qualifying criteria of being a first time buyer, with an income under £80,000, living and working locally, with family also living nearby, meaning he was able to secure a new home at just 70% of the market value.
“I’d been putting money into a Help to Buy ISA since I was 18 and had begun full time employment. So, I’d managed to max out what I needed to pay in to be eligible to receive the full 25% top up from the government. I wasn’t saving for anything in particular, I just wasn’t really spending a lot of my money,” Jamie recalled.
“The First Homes Scheme convinced me to apply for a mortgage on one of the houses at Bridgewater View. I think without it I would have waited a few more years to move out.”
Jamie put down a 25% deposit and opted for a 17-year mortgage, with an initial fixed rate of just over four per cent.
“I’m hoping to be mortgage free by 40 as I plan to make extra payments if I can afford to,” the 24-year-old said.
“With my work background I’ve created a spreadsheet of my outgoings and I asked friends and family for examples of how much they spend on bills to give me an idea of what to expect.”
His three-bedroom semi-detached Highfield style home was built using a timber frame and has solar panels amongst other energy efficient features.
“The thermal efficiency is amazing,” Jamie said. “If I have a few people over, it’s so hot I don’t need to have the heating on.”
While he hadn’t been planning on buying a home just yet, a new build was on his radar.
“I don’t think I would have bought an older property,” Jamie said. “I had an idea of what I wanted – a modern kitchen with a granite work top. Buying a new build home meant I could customise it and Willow, Castle Green’s new home assistant, made it much easier to visualise it as you could create CGI versions of the options and see how it would fit in the house. With Willow you also get a progress update every time a new build stage is met.”
Current prices at Bridgwater View, part of the wider Daresbury Garden Village development, start from £175,178 using the First Homes Scheme.
Show homes are open daily from 10am to 5pm. For more information see https://www.castlegreenhomes.uk/our-developments/north-west/bridgewater-view.