Helping to make Help to Buy helpful
Help! The government has its heart in the right place, trying to ‘help’ first time buyers with its Help to Buy schemes… and as of today a new one has launched, the Help to Buy ISA. It can all feel very confusing – we’re not promising to ‘deconfuse’ things completely, but here is a brief summary of how Help to Buy works with Pocket, and links to some nice clear explanations.
Pocket was delighted that Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham and Lewisham Housing Chief Cllr Damien Egan kicked off the construction of 26 affordable Pocket homes yesterday for local people in Lewisham.
Announced in the government’s Spending Review yesterday, ‘London Help to Buy‘ is a punchy new addition to the Help to Buy family. And now that we’ve got our heads around how the Help to Buy equity loan works in principle, we can easily understand the London version. When coupled with the government’s commitment to create 200,000 starter homes, things should be easier for first time buyer in London, which is great news.
In simple terms, from early 2016 first time buyers in London will be able to borrow up to 40% of a new property’s value from the government, interest free for five years. This means that buyers will need to raise a smaller mortgage, which will open the market up to more people on lower incomes. Pocket hope this will help even more first time buyers to get a foot on the property ladder.
A house doesn’t become a home until you put a personal stamp on the place. After the potential stress of buying a house, the real fun begins with decorating. Helpfully, our Pocket homes provide plenty of space and flexibility, whether you are buying furniture for your new home, picking out a specific living room rug or catching the eye with a statement art piece.
However, with various rooms and functions to consider, knowing where to start is far from easy. If the idea of how to furnish a new home gives you a headache, this guide could be useful for you.
Read MoreFair to Middling, and how Pocket fits in
The latest report to be published on London’s housing crisis, Fair to Middling, is specifically focused on intermediate housing, whether it’s working, and how it can be improved. The Commission on Intermediate Housing (COIH) was set up following the Centre for London’s 2014 report, Hollow Promise, which highlighted that London needed to prioritise ways of making housing for low- to-middle income earners more affordable. The COIH has been jointly chaired by councillors from two very different London boroughs, Kensington & Chelsea and Haringey, with input from a range of eminent contributors – including Pocket’s very own CEO, Marc Vlessing.
1st phase viewings at Western Road UB2 fully booked
Becoming a homeowner means all sorts of things – one of which is having your very own front door to showcase your pumpkin-carving skills. It so happens that tomorrow, Saturday 31st October 2015, is Halloween, and we have invited nearly 30 potential buyers for our latest development in Western Road UB2, Southall, to visit our Camden show flat. We have back-to-back appointments, and while the launch has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween (although we may have some spooky sweets to keep our sales team and their visitors going through the busy day), it could mean that the 1st phase of Western Road UB2, sells out before the trick or treating starts!
Pocket’s latest development Western Road UB2 has launched!
We’re really excited about our new Pocket community, located right in the heart of vibrant Southall. Our building was designed by the well-known architectural practice JTP, and contains 36 compact one bedroom apartments, all available for sale to first time buyers at the discounted price of £165,000 – it’s a great way to get your foot on the housing ladder. Each home is a perfectly-formed 38m2 with kitchen-living room, double bedroom, shower room, and heaps of built-in storage. There’s a huge garden to the rear, perfect for practising your gardening skills and meeting the other residents, all of whom will be owner-occupiers too.
Pocket Regen, is our submission for the NLA’s recent competition, ‘New Ideas for Housing London’. Pocket Regen is a new way of managing estate regeneration. By engaging openly with estate communities, and offering real reasons to welcome regeneration, we can provide additional 100% affordable housing for the very people that make this city great.
Like marriage, the secret to a successful first time home purchase is compromise.
In what has become a supply-starved London housing market effected by rapidly rising prices, Pocket have built their model around the one facet that first time buyers are not willing to compromise on – location.
The London-based developer prioritises location over size allowing it to deliver first-time buyer homes in good commuting locations at a minimum of 20% below the open market rate capped at the current top price of £260,000.
“Pocket brings a rational approach together with the sort of design flair that makes spaces feel generous and desirable. As the current crisis forces new thinking, Pocket’s initiatives provide a positive example to other housing providers when new ideas are thin on the ground.” Peter Murray, New London Architecture
There is a huge need for affordable housing in London. The young, hardworking Londoners who make our city tick cannot live near where they work. City makers are keen to save up and get on the housing ladder but costs and prices are just rising year on year and wages aren’t keeping pace. But Pocket has a great solution: our homes are close to transport links, sold with at least a 20% discount to market and are 100% owner-owned.
Our newest development Western Road UB2 (pictured above) is launching for sale this month and consists of 36 one bedroom Pocket homes in Southall, in the borough of Ealing. With their hefty discount, cleverly designed interiors and generous communal gardens they are going to sell fast… so we are out and about this autumn spreading the word and making sure as many city makers as possible have the opportunity to buy these Pocket homes. We’re launching more schemes across London later in the year and into 2016, so even if Ealing isn’t your area, come and say hello!