Homeowners

First Home Fund

The First Home Fund is a £200 million shared equity pilot scheme to provide first-time buyers with up to £25,000 to help them buy a property that meets their needs and is located in the area where they want to live.

It is open to all first-time buyers in Scotland and can be used to help buy both new build and existing properties.

The funding provided by the scheme will help over 8,000 first-time buyers purchase their first home.

Information for buyers

• guidance leaflet for buyers
• applicant journey flowchart
• First Home Fund overview 
• after sales shared equity procedures 
• after sales Information for buyers

Applications to the scheme can be made through the Link Housing website.

The following lenders offer mortgages for the First Home Fund:

• Bank of Scotland
• Barclays
• Glasgow Credit Union
• Halifax
• Leeds Building Society
• Nationwide
• Scotwest Credit Union
• Skipton
• TSB
• Capital Credit Union
• The Mansfield Building Society
• Vida Homeloans

Information for homebuying professionals

• guidance leaflet for lenders and IFAs
• applicant journey flowchart
• administrative procedures
• First Home Fund overview
• sustainability calculator
• after sales shared equity procedures
• sample application form (all applications must be made through the  Link Housing website)
• award letter
• standing instructions to solicitors

Funding and monitoring information

We will collect information to monitor the First Home Fund. This information will be published here once it is available. These data are not Official Statistics or National Statistics and they have been collated as management information for the purposes of policy monitoring only. 

Monitoring Information report

• 2019-20

Evaluation of pilot phase

The pilot phase of the First Home Fund ran from December 2019 to October 2020, and a quantitative and a qualitative evaluation have been undertaken. Links to each of these reports, as well as to a synthesis report which summarises the key findings from the two strands of the research, are provided below:

• Quantitative evaluation report
• Qualitative evaluation report
• Synthesis report

Due to high uptake, the First Home Fund closed to new applications on Friday 2 October 2020.  The scheme will now re-open on 1 April 2021 for purchases completing in financial year 2021-22.

The Scottish Government continues to support homebuyers and the housebuilding sector through existing schemes including Help to Buy (Scotland) and the Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT).

More information on the administering agents, Link Homes, website..