First-time buyers aged
between 23 and 40 may soon be able to buy a new home at a discount of a least
20% below market value, under the government’s ‘Starter Home’ initiative.
The properties will
start being built this year, the housing minister Gavin Barwell confirmed at
the beginning of the New Year, with an initial group of 30 local authority
partnerships leading the schemes.
Funding will be
supported by the government’s £1.2 billion Starter Homes Land fund, which was
established last April.
The fund was set up
to assist the aim of building 200,000 Starter Homes by 2020 on brownfield sites
in England, such as those currently or previously used for commercial or
industrial purposes.
However, critics of
the scheme claim that as the maximum price after the discount has been applied
will be £250,000 outside London and £450,000 in the capital, the new properties
won’t be affordable for many first-time buyers.
It’s expected that
they won’t be able to sell on or let their Starter Homes at their open market
value for a period of at least five years after the initial sale.
