First Home Fund runs out of money

The Scottish Government’s £60m First Home Fund has closed to applications after running out of money only five working days since its reopening.

The fund opened on 1 April this year with a budget of £60m, which is down from £200m last year.

The scheme was introduced in December 2019 to help buyers purchase their first home from either the new or secondhand market, providing up to £25,000 as an equity loan. Buyers must contribute a minimum deposit of 5% of the purchase price and take out a minimum 25% mortgage on the purchase price.

Since opening at the start of this month, the fund has been allocated and applications have now closed.

A message on the Scottish Government's website says: “The First Home Fund is fully committed for 2021-22 and applications are now closed. Any applications in progress but not yet submitted at point of closure are unable to be processed.”

Nicola Barclay, chief executive of industry body Homes for Scotland, said: “This will clearly be very disappointing news to all those people who had been hoping that the First Home Fund would enable them to get on to the property ladder.

"We anticipated that there would be huge demand given the success of the pilot scheme run last year. Despite this, the Scottish Government allocated just 30% of the levels spent in 2020, citing budget cuts from Westminster for the reduction. This also comes on top of the closure of the hugely successful Help to Buy scheme and will be a huge blow to all those who aspire to own their own home.”