Key workers, including teachers, nurses and firefighters, are being given a helping hand on to the property ladder with the chance to buy homes in the Black Country at an affordable price.
Homes are now on sale in Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Wednesbury and West Bromwich as part of a Government initiative which provides financial support.
The initiative, overseen by Mercian Housing Association which covers the whole of the West Midlands, enables key workers to buy properties starting from around £45,000 for a 50 per cent share while a minimal rent must be paid to cover the remaining half of the home’s value.
It is seen as a new way of giving teachers, nurses, firefighters and other key workers a help on to the housing ladder.
Other options are available where buyers can purchase as little as a 25 per cent or up to 75 per cent share of the property.
Another option, when the purchaser takes out a mortgage on 75 per cent of the property, is the availability of two interest-free loans for five years, covering the remaining quarter of the asking price, one from the Government and the second from an approved mortgage lender.
Over the last 10 years house prices have risen by a staggering 139 per cent - but earnings have risen less than 25 per cent.
Priority is given to people living in council or housing association properties but anyone with rent arrears will not be eligible.
At the moment there are over 60 properties available in Walsall alone, including new as well as refurbished properties, from one-bedroom apartments to three to six-bedroom houses.
In Walsall buyers can snap up a three-bed home in Cannon Street for £49,000, a two-bedroom in Miner Street for £45,000 or another two-bedroom home in Chuckery Road for £57,500.
For more details or to see what properties are for sale log on to www.homebuyagents.org.uk.
The scheme is called HomeBuy. Diane Sawyers, one of the first of the HomeBuy applicants, said: “If it wasn’t for HomeBuy, I would probably still be renting.”
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