First Time Buyer Mortgages

No, they are not. Mortgage companies offer First Time Buyers things like cashback or free valuations or some form of incentive like these. The rates are normally the same as other rates for Home Movers i.e. people who currently have mortgages already.

Minimum deposit required these days is 5% There are various schemes around made by the government like Help to Buy Equity Loan or Mortgage Guarantee or Shared Ownership.
The thing to remember is the bigger the deposit the better the rate.

The Help to Buy scheme is a great idea for either single people or couples with lower incomes who cannot quite afford to get on the property ladder by themselves. There are two types of scheme:
1. Equity Loan – this is for new build properties only. The Help to Buy people give you 20% of the property value as a loan, you put in 5% deposit and the rest is made by the way of a mortgage. I think this is a great concept and it used to be called “Shared Equity” but has been jazzed up by the government and called “Equity Loan”
2. Mortgage Guarantee – This is for any property you wish to purchase on the open market i.e. new and second-hand homes. These homes must be approved by the Help to Buy people. You put in 5% of the property value and the government “guarantee” 20% of the property value. This guarantees the lender will get their money back if 1. the property decreases in value and 2. you stop making your mortgage payments and the mortgage lender repossesses your home. If the property value is less than the mortgage owed on the property, the “guarantee” ensures the lender gets all the money back therefore minimising the risk of them being out of pocket. It’s a guarantee for the lender that’s all. We recommend you get independent legal advice regarding this as there could be further financial implications and liabilities on your behalf if things should go wrong.
The maximum property value you could buy through this Help to Buy is £600,000 and you must also NOT own any other properties

If you have a deposit of 20% or more then you can generally borrow up to 5 times your annual salary.
If you have less than a 20% deposit, then you are generally restricted to around 4.5 times your salary although this does vary from lender to lender.

First-time buyer mortgages are for people who have never owned a property before in their lifetime.
Some mortgage lenders class first time buyers as people who have never ever owned property before in their life and other mortgage lenders consider first time buyers to be people who has not owned a property for more than 12 months or 2 years.
Different lenders have different criteria but being a First-time buyer. Speak to you adviser if you have any questions regarding this.

You can get a mortgage as a first-time buyer if you have had bad credit in the past. The type of rate and who the lender will be, completely depends on several factors like:
1. How much deposit you need. You generally need at least 10% deposit, but in most cases, you need 15%
2. What type of bad credit you have, for example, do you have defaults, CCJs, Bankruptcy, IVA or a Debt Management Plan?
3. When were the bad debts registered and how much were they?

These mortgages are available to First time buyers buying their first home but in short you need a larger deposit and you will pay a higher interest rate than normal.

The amount of interest and the deposit you need depends on how recent and the level of bad credit you have.