On 26th September 2026, the UK government announced Your First Home. It’s a new scheme that lets first-time buyers purchase a new-build with a deposit of just 2.5%. This is the closest offering we’ve had to Help to Buy since that scheme closed in 2023, and the details land at the Autumn Budget on Wednesday 28th October 2026.
That gap matters more than the headline. For the next month, agents are selling into a market where a chunk of first-time buyers know something is coming but don’t yet know if they qualify. Here is what has been confirmed, what hasn’t, and what to do about it before the Budget.
What has actually been announced
Your First Home is an equity loan scheme. The buyer puts down 2.5%, the government provides a 20% equity loan, and a lender covers the remaining 77.5%.
| Element | Confirmed detail |
|---|---|
| Buyer deposit | 2.5% |
| Government-backed equity loan | 20% |
| Mortgage | 77.5% loan to value |
| Interest on the equity loan | Interest free for an initial period, length not yet confirmed |
| Property type | New-build only, from developers signed up to the scheme |
| Buyer eligibility | First-time buyers, subject to a household income cap and local property price caps |
| Developer role | Developers make a financial contribution when they sign up |
The practical effect is on affordability rather than deposit alone. Because the buyer borrows at 77.5% loan to value instead of 95%, the monthly payment drops. The government’s own framing is a saving of hundreds of pounds a month compared with a 95% mortgage.
It is worth being precise with clients about one thing: Help to Buy has not been brought back. It closed to new applicants in 2022 and ended in 2023. Your First Home is a new scheme with a similar shape and a smaller deposit, 2.5% rather than 5%.
What we still don’t know
The caps are the whole story, and they haven’t been published. Until they are, nobody can tell a buyer whether the scheme is open to them.
Still outstanding:
- The household income cap
- The local property price caps, and how granular they are
- How long the interest-free period runs, and what the equity loan costs after it. Help to Buy gave five years
- Repayment terms, and whether buyers can let out or sell with restrictions attached
- Which lenders will offer the 77.5% mortgage, and at what rates
- Which developers sign up, and how much stock they put into the scheme
- The overall budget, and how many buyers it is expected to reach
All of it is due at the Budget on Wednesday 28th October 2026, with pre-registration expected to open before the end of the year. Anything you tell a buyer before then is a shape, not an answer, and it is worth saying so out loud rather than letting them assume otherwise.
The next month: Will first-time buyers pause?
This is the part that hits your pipeline first. A buyer sitting on a 5% deposit has just been told that a 2.5% option may exist in the coming months. Committing to a sale now, might cost them the better deal.
So expect, through October:
- Fewer first-time buyer viewings, and slower decisions from the ones who do view
- Offers withdrawn or renegotiated on the grounds of ‘let’s see what the Budget says’
- More questions at valuation about whether a property will qualify, which it won’t if it isn’t a new-build from a participating developer
The practical move is to get ahead of the conversation rather than wait for it. Sales progression teams should be flagging first-time buyer chains now and having the conversation with vendors before a buyer goes quiet, not after.
After the Budget: Demand releases, and new-build pulls ahead
Once the caps are published, the buyers who paused come back at once. The agents who convert them are the ones whose first-time buyer list is already warm and already segmented, not the ones starting to build it on 29th October.
Three shifts to plan for:
New-build demand rises, and it is concentrated. The scheme only works on stock from participating developers. If you have a land and new homes arm, or good developer relationships, that is where the benefit lands. If you don’t, some of your first-time buyer demand will be pulled towards new-build stock you aren’t selling. Help to Buy did exactly this, and it widened the price gap between new-build and second-hand.
Qualifying a buyer gets harder. Proceedability used to be a question about deposit and mortgage in principle. Now it is a three-way check: Does the buyer clear the income cap, does the property clear the local price cap, and is the developer signed up. A buyer can look perfectly funded and still be ineligible on the specific property in front of them. Agents who don’t capture this at registration will waste viewings on it.
Second-hand stock needs a sharper argument. If new-build carries a premium and a subsidy, the case for a second-hand home becomes value, space and chain position. That is a perfectly good argument, but it has to be made rather than assumed.
What it means for lettings
Less than the sales side, but not nothing. Tenants leaving the rented sector to buy eases demand at the lower end of the market, and lettings teams may see a few more notices served than usual once the scheme opens.
Be realistic about the scale. A 2.5% deposit mostly accelerates people who were already on their way to buying rather than creating buyers who weren’t. The bigger operational point is timing: If tenants give notice in a cluster after the Budget, that is a re-let and referencing spike landing in the same few weeks. Worth knowing before it arrives rather than after.
Four things to consider doing before 28th October 2026
- Tag every first-time buyer in your CRM. When the caps drop you want one list you can act on the same morning, not an afternoon of searching. Tag by budget band too, because the price caps will be local and some of your list will fall outside them.
- Start capturing household income at registration. It is the one field that will decide eligibility and almost nobody records it today. Ask for it now and you will qualify buyers in minutes rather than weeks once the cap is published.
- Talk to your developers. Find out which of them intend to sign up and on what stock. Agents who know this before the Budget can advise buyers on day one, while everyone else is still asking.
- Brief your vendors in first-time buyer chains. A short, honest conversation about a possible October pause protects the sale. Silence, then a buyer going quiet, does not.
The risk worth holding in mind
A 2.5% deposit leaves almost no equity buffer. If prices dip, those buyers are in negative equity quickly, and remortgaging at the end of the interest-free period gets harder rather than easier. The HomeOwners Alliance made this point on the day of the announcement, and it is a fair one.
For agents, that risk turns up later and wearing a different hat: Down valuations, fall-throughs, and onward chains that stall because the buyer at the bottom can’t refinance. Worth factoring into how you price and how you progress, not a reason to be gloomy about the scheme.
There is also the older argument, well rehearsed since Help to Buy, that demand-side subsidies on new-build push prices up and margins with them rather than improving affordability. Whether that repeats depends almost entirely on where the caps land and how much stock developers commit.
Keep your first-time buyer pipeline ready
When the caps are published, the agents who move first will be the ones whose data is already in order. Alto keeps every buyer, requirement and chain in one place, so you can segment your first-time buyer list and act on it the same day rather than the following week.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Your First Home scheme?
Your First Home is a government equity loan scheme for first-time buyers in England, announced on 26th September 2026. Buyers put down a 2.5% deposit, the government provides a 20% equity loan, and a lender covers the remaining 77.5%. It applies to new-build homes from developers signed up to the scheme.
Is Your First Home the same as Help to Buy?
No. Help to Buy closed to new applicants in 2022 and ended in 2023. Your First Home is a new scheme with a similar equity loan structure but a smaller deposit requirement, 2.5% rather than 5%.
When does the Your First Home scheme start?
Full details, including income caps, price caps and the launch date, are due at the Budget on Wednesday 28th October 2026. Pre-registration is expected to open before the end of 2026.
Who is eligible for the 2.5% deposit scheme?
First-time buyers in England purchasing a new-build from a participating developer. A household income cap and local property price caps will apply, and neither figure has been published yet.
What should estate agents do now?
Tag first-time buyers in your CRM, start capturing household income at registration, confirm which local developers intend to sign up, and brief vendors in first-time buyer chains about a possible pause before the Budget.
