KAITY and Keelan set themselves a challenge to save for a family home in just six months after their son Remy was born.
With the clock ticking, the couple put themselves on a takeaway ban and banned meals out to scrabble together the £9,400 for a deposit for their two-bedroom home in time.
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Kaity, 26, and Keelan, 27, had been living with Kaity’s parents, but they decided they needed to buy their own home to raise baby Remy.
But they suffered a blow early in the process after realising they would only be able to get a mortgage in Kaity’s name.
At the time Keelan was newly self-employed so mortgage companies would not take his wage into account when they were applying.
Because they hadn’t anticipated this being a problem, it totally changed their plans.
But after coming across the shared ownership scheme, they realised their home ownership dreams were still alive.
The shared ownership scheme allows first-time buyers to buy with a lower deposit.
You co-own your home with a housing association and buy a portion of the property and then pay rent on the part that you don’t own.
Potential homeowners can put down a deposit of just 5% for some properties – so it’s helpful for first-time buyers.
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Buyers must purchase between 10% and 75% of the property to use the initiative, and they can then “staircase” – buy more shares in instalments – until they own 100% of it.
You can find local shared ownership properties on the Share to Buy website, or contact your local housing association.
One of the issues with shared ownership is that you don’t have as much freedom when it comes to selling your home, compared to if you hadn’t used the scheme.
There are also fewer lenders offering shared ownership mortgages compared with standard ones.
But it can be a good alternative for first-time buyers needing a bit of support to get on the housing ladder.
Kaity, Keelan and Remy moved into their home in Widdrington, Northumberland in December 2022.
We sat down with Kaity to find out how the couple went from being savers to homeowners for The Sun’s My First Home series.
Tell me about your home
It’s a two-bedroom semi-detached house in Widdrington, Northumberland.
Our house is quite spacious, with a big double driveway out the front.
We have a large living room which leads into our kitchen, which has big French doors leading to our garden.
We’re lucky that we have quite a lot of outdoor space, with a summer house and a wood chip area for Remy to play in.
Upstairs, there is Remy’s nursery, the master bedroom and a separate bathroom.
How did you decide on location?
We thought the house was great value for money compared to other new builds we had looked at.
The staff at the sales office were also really warm and friendly, so that also made us feel really at ease and like we had made the right choice.
How much was it?
We used the shared ownership scheme to buy our home.
The house cost £126,000 and we own 50% of it.
We took out a shared ownership mortgage of around £56,000 for 30-years with a fixed rate of 4.4% for two years.
We didn’t want to fix it for longer than two years as we are planning to look for somewhere bigger in the near future.
Our mortgage repayments are £265 and our rent is £169, so we pay £434 a month in total.
Our deposit was 15% at £9,400 – you pay a deposit on the portion of the house that you are buying.
Why did you choose Shared Ownership?
The shared ownership scheme just worked for us because we were looking to get on the housing ladder quickly.
We were living in a spare room at my parent’s house and we were very quickly outgrowing the space.
Unfortunately, as Keelan was newly self-employed, the mortgage companies wouldn’t take his wage into account when were applying.
This led us to look at buying a house using an affordability scheme and shared ownership seemed like the best fit.
I could get a mortgage approved in just my name and we could also get a new build, which is what we really wanted.
How did you save for it?
Keelan and I have been together for four years, and have been saving intermittently throughout that time.
We weren’t putting money away with the sole aim of getting a deposit and we would dip in and out of it.
It was around June 2022 – after Remy was born – that we got serious about saving and started with a nest egg of around £4,000.
We had been living in an annexe at Keelan’s parents’ house, but we moved into a spare room at my parents.
We were very lucky that we didn’t have to pay any rent to my parents because they knew we were saving for the house.
This meant we saved a few hundred pounds a month, as we were previously paying rent to Keelan’s parents.
I was on maternity leave at the time and was receiving statutory maternity pay while Keelan had started his self-employment.
This meant that the vast majority of our income could go towards our deposit, with the exception of car insurance and petrol, which was a few hundred pounds a month.
Remy and I were putting away around £1,000 a month between us.
The main way we managed to save was by completely cutting out on meals out and takeaways.
Keelan and I would previously eat out once a week as well as get a takeaway, adding up to around £100 a week.
I think it’s an easy trap to fall into when it’s just the two of you, but when you take a step back, you realise just how much you’re spending.
Cutting this out meant that we had more cash to put away and could get to our goal amount quicker.
We were also very lucky because my parents paid for all the extra costs involved with buying a house, including solicitors fees and surveys.
How did you afford to furnish it?
We had a few pieces of furniture from living with Keelan’s parents house that we brought with us to the new place.
There were a few things that we bought brand new, including a new bed and headboard.
But a lot of our furniture we got after my grandma passed away in March 2022.
Overall, I think we saved a few thousand pounds on furniture by not forking out for everything brand new.
What’s your advice for other first-time buyers?
I think buying a new build house is the best decision that we made.
We looked at older houses and considered a renovation project, but it would have been too stressful with our son.
Our bills are also much lower than if we had gone for an older home.
We moved in at the peak of the energy crisis and we were really surprised by how low our bills were.
Meanwhile, we reveal how one family used the snowball method to clear £26,000 worth of debt and buy their first home.
One savvy saver managed to put half of his wages away while still renting to buy his first home.
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