How did you find your First Homes Scheme property?

Just wondering because they seem to be like gold dust! I don’t know anybody in real life who has got one, in fact, I know a few first-time buyers who have bought new builds and didn’t even know the First Home scheme was a thing throughout the entire process.

Me and my partner qualify for our local authority First Homes scheme, and we have plenty of new build developments around us. Some of the developer websites discuss the first home scheme, but when you go on to see the properties, none are described as First Homes.

We’re thinking to just have a drive around and go into a few development offices and ask in-person, but I’m just curious if anybody in this subreddit has successfully gotten a property, and if so, which region and company was it?

We’re torn because we currently live in a council property and are eligible to buy it. It is 3-bedrooms and does what we need it to. It is dirt cheap too (£100,000 with discount). But if we were eligible for first homes, with the 30% discount, we could get a much nicer 3-bed with 2 bathrooms, a driveway, bigger garden etc for about £175,000. Our current home also isn’t in the nicest area, whereas the new build properties are more semi-rural, which we like.

So is it worth it to wait or are we better off just buying our current council home? My partner thinks we should buy the council house, put it on a 10 year mortgage (it would be a stretch but we could afford it), then sell it and use the equity to move on to our ‘dream home’. We’re lucky to be in our 20s so have plenty of time.