Couple Pick Up the Keys for City’s First Affordable House

By MICHAEL BLACKLEY

THE first couple to take advantage of a pilot scheme that offers the opportunity to buy property at affordable prices moved into their new home today.

Carina McGillivray and Stuart McKenzie are already settling into their new house at Bleach Field, Bonnington, in Edinburgh, the first to benefit from the Scottish Executive’s shared equity programme, Homestake.

The scheme is currently being piloted in Edinburgh and the Lothians, as part of the Executive’s GBP 1.2 billion national investment to provide an additional 21,500 affordable homes in the next two years.

Using Homestake means that buyers only need to provide a 60 or 80 per cent share in a property – the rest is paid by the housing association.

When they come to sell the property, the housing association will also get a 20 or 40 per cent share of the sale price.

The couple, who had been living in a one bedroom flat with Ms McGillivray’s father and their five year old son, were delighted to move into the home before Christmas.

With another baby on the way in April they could not afford to buy on the open market, and Ms McGillivray, 28, said: “We had tried every other means to find a home. Homestake has been a saviour for us.

“Six months ago we couldn’t have believed that by Christmas we would have our own home and have moved in.

“We have already put up the tree and I am looking forward to putting my feet up and relaxing for the last three months of my pregnancy.

“I am really pleased for my son as well. He has not found it easy without his own space to play with his toys, so this will be a really special Christmas for him.”

Applications for Homestake, which is managed by Communities Scotland, were taken from September, and so far, there have been 30 applications in the Lothians.

Malcolm Chisholm, the communities minister, said that within three years he hoped to have helped around 1,000 new buyers through Homestake.

He said: “The scheme has been specifically set up to help people who want to buy their first home but can’t get a foot on the property ladder because of high prices in the local housing market.”

Unlike many shared equity schemes, Homestake takes place in the open market, where buyers are free to source a property then contact a housing association or building contractor to see if they will take part in a Homestake deal.

Single people who earn more than GBP 19,700 are not eligible to take part, and neither are larger households where earnings exceed GBP 25,100.

The first people to move into a Homestake property comes in the same week that a council-commissioned report revealed that one in ten people in Edinburgh live in homes that they cannot afford.

Sheila Gilmore, the council’s housing leader, said the scheme could help provide more affordable housing in the area, and that she hoped that more than 30 people would have taken part in the pilot already.

She added:

“It is not the answer for everyone but it is a new and imaginative way to help some people to get a first foot on the property ladder.”