Luke Anstee wants the UK Budget First-Time Buyers Scheme to make buying a home more realistic, but the 23-year-old says rising day-to-day costs have kept his savings from moving fast enough. The government's proposed Your First Home scheme is due to be set out in Wednesday's Budget and ministers say it could let first-time buyers put down a deposit as low as 2.5%.
He said buying would give him a chance to put down roots after 10 years in Germany and moves around the UK because of his father's Army career. “I don't think I've ever stayed in one place for more than three years at a time, so it would be nice to actually have somewhere where I can stay,” he said.
Luke Anstee in Shrewsbury
Anstee, who works in IT and earns more than £25,000 a year, lives in a house share and has been saving every month for the past three years. He said the savings are not where he wants them to be: “It is not where I would like it to be. When I can, I try and put more in, but one of the things I am mindful of is that I am in my final year of university.”
He also said, “I am over the threshold of when I have to start paying [my student loan] back.” That adds a second strain to the same budget he is trying to build for a home deposit.
Your First Home and 2.5%
The scheme's headline figure is the deposit level. Ministers said Your First Home could help first-time buyers purchase a property with as little as 2.5% down, and the source also points to an earnings limit of up to £140K for the loan scheme.
For buyers, that means the first hurdle is not the full price of a home but the upfront cash needed to get a purchase started. The practical question in Wednesday's Budget is how the scheme will work in full: who fits inside the income cap, how much buyers would need to repay, and what the final rules will look like.
Rising costs for Luke Anstee
Anstee's case shows why the announcement matters for people already trying to save. “If you think about my weekly shop, back in the day that would probably be £20-30. Now it's £60,” he said. “I used to pay high 40s, low 50s [to fill up on petrol]. Now I pay nearly £70 a tank.”
He said, “You can cut back on subscriptions and stuff but I don't pay for any.” That leaves the gap between saving and buying a home still open, even with the Budget about to set out more detail.
