BUYING a house is one of the priciest purchases you’ll make, but first-time buyers Vicki and Diarmuid found ways to get freebies.
Geography teachers Vicki, 28, and Diarmuid, 32, bought their £253,500 first home in May this year.
Diarmuid proposed to Vicki on the day the couple moved into their first home
The couple moved into their two-bedroom home in May
They made the most of a mortgage incentive scheme offered by their homebuilder
To help lower the costs, they made the most of a mortgage incentive scheme from their home builder Bellway to get a whopping £12,000 for free.
The scheme gave first-time buyers up to £12,000 in cash if they reserved a new-build home with them before March 31.
You could take the cash either as a mortgage subsidy, or a deposit contribution.
The pair put £9,000 of the cash towards their £30,000 deposit, and used the other £3,000 to kit out their new pad with integrated appliances and fresh carpet.
To get a deal over the line, developers, builders and housing associations will offer financial incentives if you’re buying a new–build property.
What freebies you can get varies on a case by case basis – it all depends on who you are buying from and how much they are willing to give to you.
But in some cases, you can get free cash to put towards buying your house worth up to five per cent of the purchase price of the house.
Vicki and Diarmuid saved for around five years to afford their new home – saving little but often.
The pair said the hard work was worth it and Diarmuid even proposed to Vicki on the same day they moved.
The Sun sat down with the couple to see how they kept their savings on track for our My First Home series.
Tell me about your home
It’s a two-bedroom mid-terrace house in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
The layout is great, we love the open-plan vibe and there is so much more space than the place we were renting.
Our bedroom has an en suite, which is brilliant, and there is a spare bedroom for guests, a family bathroom and a toilet downstairs.
What is also really good is that we have a driveway where we can park both of our cars.
That is so much more convenient because at the old house we had to rent a space in a nearby car park for one of our cars, which cost £50 a month.
How did you decide on that location?
We started to look around at new-build houses and wanted to stay local so we would be close to my workplace in Burton-upon-Trent and Vicki’s work in Burntwood near Cannock, as well as my sister in Barton-under-Needwood.
We were previously renting a two-bedroom townhouse in the centre of Lichfield for £820, not including bills.
During our searches, the Bellway development at Sheasby Park in Fradley, which is right between both our work locations, popped up and we decided to go along for a look.
How much was it?
Our house cost £253,500 and we put down a 15% deposit of around £30,000.
We took out a mortgage of £223,500 for 35 years with a fixed rate of 4.6% for five years.
Going for a longer mortgage meant we could make our repayments a bit more manageable.
We pay around £1,100 a month towards our mortgage.
How did you save for it?
Diarmuid and I first started saving around five years ago with the aim of getting a deposit together.
We didn’t have a set timeline, but we knew that we would eventually put the money towards our first home.
Both of us were in the fortunate position to be in well-paid and secure jobs that we both enjoyed.
This made saving a lot easier and we were comfortably able to put away around £250 a month each.
The cash would leave our accounts at the beginning of the month and go into our joint savings account.
We would also put whatever we had left at the end of each month into the savings account, which would vary between £80 and £200.
Because we were saving over such a long period of time, we didn’t have to make any sacrifices in order to put more cash away.
For example, we were still able to go on holiday to Budapest, Hungary, earlier this year.
We were also fortunate to get a few thousand pounds in help from our parents towards our deposit.
Of course, this isn’t possible for everyone, and we were very lucky and grateful for the help.
Did you get any freebies?
We made the most of Bellway’s Mortgage Contribution Scheme.
This gave first-time buyers up to £12,000 in cash if they reserved a home with them before March 31.
You could take the cash either as a mortgage subsidy, or a deposit contribution.
We decided to use £3,000 of the cash towards extras for our home, and put £9,000 towards our deposit.
The £9,000 contribution took our deposit from 10% to 15% and enabled us to get a decent mortgage deal.
This is what allowed us to be able to buy this particular house, or we would have needed to save for longer.
We used the other £3,000 to get brand new, integrated appliances including a washing machine and tumble dryer as well as a new carpet.
How did you afford to furnish it?
We had a few pieces of furniture from living in our rented property that we brought with us to the new place.
There were a few things that we bought brand new, including a sofa that we got on finance.
Facebook Marketplace was also great for picking up smaller pieces of more decorative furniture at a bargain price.
We got two bedside tables for £20, which would have definitely retailed for around £80.
Some other bits we picked up included a lamp and a rug, which were both brand new and in great condition.
Overall, I would say we saved around £200 on buying second-hand items.
What’s your advice for other first-time buyers?
Spend time researching solicitors and check out their reviews.
While getting one that’s a little cheaper might seem like a good idea, it’s worth considering spending a little more to get top service.
Our solicitor was great and we didn’t have to do anything and you can’t put a price on peace of mind.
I’d also advise looking for incentives, like the one we got from Bellway.
Here’s how one couple got £11,000 off their deposit for their £217,000 first home.
Another family is saving THOUSANDS on their £385,500 first home with a simple mortgage trick.
The couple saved for around five years to afford their deposit
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