Open Market HomeBuy system to be restructured

A scheme which is designed to help key workers get onto the housing ladder is to be restructured after only 2,000 people part-bought their homes through it.

The Open Market HomeBuy system is to offer a mortgage with an initial interest rate of 1.75 per cent in an attempt to increase the number of workers who are taking advantage of it, reports the Evening Standard.

Currently the take-up of the scheme represents 0.6 per cent of the amount of people who bought homes for the first time last year.

Coming into effect on April 1st, the new system will allow first time buyers to take out a mortgage which is half of the property''s cost, meaning somebody looking to buy a house worth £300,000 will only have to get a mortgage for £150,000.

Recently it was announced that the number of mortgage approvals increased in January.

A report by the British Bankers'' Association has revealed that the slowdown in the market may not be as severe as first expected.

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