Deposit Builder

Before you apply, there’s a few boxes you need to be able to tick:

• You’ve completed a starter tenancy of 12 months with Home Group or another public sector landlord
• You have an active Help to Buy ISA or Lifetime ISA
• You want to buy your current home, or another Home Group property located in England or Wales
• Your rent account is up to date with no arrears
• You have a good credit history and no current or pending other debt issues
• There are no court proceedings about to be issued to you or any other tenant on your tenancy
• You don’t claim (or plan to claim) housing benefit or Universal Credit
• Additional restrictions apply when saving with a lifetime ISA. The saving scheme is only open to first time buyers under the age of 40. The property must be purchased with a mortgage (i.e. not cash) the property must be £450,000 or less
• Any Home Group customer can apply for the scheme, but only some properties will be available to buy due to legal restrictions. If you can’t buy the property you currently live in, you can still sign up to the scheme, (provided you meet the eligibility criteria), but with a view to buying another Home Group property. When we get your application we’ll check whether your home is available to buy and let you know the outcome as soon as we can.

Remember Home Group Limited (Charitable Community Benefit Society No. 22981R) is not permitted to provide financial advice. We strongly recommend all applicants to seek independent financial advice to fully understand the commitments and risks related to home ownership. Providers authorised and regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) can be found on the Financial Services Register. 

There's three steps when it comes to applying for Deposit Builder.

Step one

Tell us a few details about who you are and where you live. You can do this by filling out and submitting this expression of interest form.

Step two

Once you've submitted the expression of interest form, you’ll get an email from one of our team with a Deposit Builder application form. Before filling this in and applying, check all of the FAQs on this page to make sure you meet the eligibility criteria. It’s also a good idea to look over all of the Deposit Builder legal info and speak to an independent financial advisor. Once you've filled out the application form, send it back to us by emailing DepositBuilder@homegroup.org.uk.

Step three

Once we've received your Deposit Builder application form, we will send you an electronic invitation to verify your identity and residency by our partner specialist company Credas.

Once your identity is verified, we’ll carry out some checks to make sure you and the property are eligible to join the scheme (some properties will not be eligible for sale). We’ll be in touch as soon as we have the answer.

Not necessarily. You can put your Deposit Builder savings towards your current home if it’s eligible, or you can put it towards a different eligible Home Group home instead, like one of our new builds, Persona Homes by Home Group.

Please bear in mind that we have a small number of homes that we’re not allowed to sell by law. We’ll check whether the home you live in now is available to buy when we get your application and will let you know about any restrictions as soon as we can.

Deposit Builder isn’t a regulated financial product, which means Home Group won’t hold your savings at any point. Banks and financial institutions that provide a Help to Buy or Lifetime ISA are usually regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Please be aware we need all applicants to be able to prove they have a Help to Buy ISA or Lifetime ISA before we can accept their application.

Once you’ve signed up to the scheme and start getting your rent discount, your home will be removed from the planned maintenance list for any new bathrooms, kitchens or external doors required. You’ll be able to replace these parts of your home yourself once your sale has completed.

We'll still carry out general repairs in your home. 

Any Home Group customer can apply for the scheme but only certain properties will be available to buy due to certain restrictions. For customers who can not buy their own property, due to charity law or Home Group lending restrictions, they have the option to use the scheme to buy another new build Persona Homes by Home Group property anywhere in the UK.

If you have a Help to Buy ISA you can save for any amount of time up to five years. However, if you have a Lifetime ISA you must save for a minimum of a year before you can purchase your home with the benefit of the government bonus and Home Group matching it. Remember that restrictions apply with the Lifetime ISA.

The Lifetime ISA is now available to use instead. Remember that restrictions apply with the Lifetime ISA.

Once your application is submitted and you confirm you wish to sign up to the scheme, we will arrange for your property to be valued. The surveyor who values your property will be accredited by the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors). On receipt of the valuation report, further checks will be carried out. If there are no issues, we’ll issue you a "price freeze” offer based on the surveyor’s report.

This gives you an indicative value for your home and means you can plan your savings over the next five years.

If you accept the “price freeze” offer, we need to seek approval to convert the property from a rented property to one we can sell. If approval is received, you will be formally invited to sign up to the scheme.

At this point, you pay a non-refundable £200 deposit.

At the sign up stage you must consent to a reduced maintenance programme. This means we would not replace bathrooms, kitchens, or external doors.

We'll still carry out general repairs in your home. 

Once you have signed up, a £50 per month rent reduction is applied. We expect this to be saved into your Help to Buy ISA or Lifetime ISA, along with anything else you can contribute. This is called the “saving stage” and can last up to five years. During the savings stage we conduct annual checks to ensure you are saving regularly and you still meet the eligibility criteria for the scheme.

With the Help to Buy ISA the amount you save into the account every month is up to you as long as you don't go over £200. However, you can't roll over your allowance. £4,000 each tax year is the maximum amount you can save with the Lifetime ISA. You must be able to prove that you have saved at least the yearly rent saving amount when we review your ISA savings account with you at the end of the financial year.

When you are ready to purchase, you just need to let us know. At that point the property is re-valued by the RICS registered surveyor; if the value of the property hasn’t increased by more than 20% we honour the original "price freeze" value. If the property has increased more than 20%, you may be eligible to buy a different home, which might include shared ownership, a new build or even a resale property.

Once you have proof of funds and your solicitor’s details, conveyancing begins and you’ll soon be a homeowner! Home Group will match the bonus the government add to your Help to Buy or Lifetime ISA savings (remember to check the Lifetime ISA restrictions).