The scheme is open to all customers who meet the eligibility criteria and who want to build or commission their own home in England.

To qualify for the Help to Build Equity Loan Scheme, your clients must meet the following criteria:

• Aged 18 or over
• Right to live in England
• Must not own any other residential property, including buy to lets, in the UK or elsewhere in the world.  This applies to anyone else living in the property
• Will occupy the property as their only or main residence, immediately following the completion of the build
• Satisfies Homes England’s anti-money laundering requirements
• Must pass the sustainability requirements set by Homes England
• Able secure a self build mortgage with a registered lender
• Must engage a conveyancer as soon as their application is approved through to drawdown of the equity loan
• Your overall project costs (the cost of your land where you don’t already own it and your build costs) must not be more than £600,000 and your build costs must not be more than £400,000

With self and custom build, the typical deposit required is 20% – 25%.  With the Help to Build Equity Loan Scheme, your clients only need to contribute 5% with the government topping up the other 20% in the form of an equity loan.  The remaining 75% will take the form of a self build mortgage.

The equity loan is paid to the lender by the government on completion of the build.

The minimum customer contribution is 5% of the property’s initial land and build costs.*

The maximum Homes England contribution will be:

• Outside London area – 20% of the initial land and build costs capped at £120K
• London area – 40% of the initial land and build costs capped at £240K

The build must be completed and the equity loan drawn down within 36 months of the equity loan application being approved.

No interest is payable on the equity loan for the first five years.

*T&Cs apply. Funding for professional fees such as the costs of design, planning, warranty and building control can be included under the scheme, however, it should be noted there may be some other costs that are excluded and these will need to be paid for separately.

The government equity loan is paid to the lender on completion of the property to pay off part of the mortgage.  The self build mortgage must switch to a repayment mortgage.

Borrowers do not pay any interest on the equity loan for the first 5 years.

From year 6, interest will be charged at a fixed rate of 1.75% per annum.  From year 7 onwards, interest will be the previous year’s interest increasing by 2% plus CPI.

A management fee of £1 per month is payable for the whole term of the equity loan by direct debit.

No – the scheme is open to anyone who meets the eligibility criteria.

The scheme will run for a period of four years from December 2021.  The last permissible timing for draw down will be 2028.

Self and custom build is defined under the Self Build and Custom Homebuilding Act 2015.

• Building or completion must be undertaken by individuals, an association of individuals or persons working with or for individuals or associations of individuals, of houses to be occupied as homes by those individuals.
• It does not include the building of a house wholly or mainly to plans or specifications decided or offered by that person.

• The property must be a new build property. Newly constructed and completed dwellings, including flats created by utilising the airspace above an existing property (provided it has its own address), converted commercial premises and any conversions, which have not been used as residential dwellings, immediately before conversion are eligible; houses split into flats are not included in the definition.
• Any property (a house or building), which has been previously occupied, either by an owner-occupier, licensee or a tenant, which is to be demolished in full, in order to build a new self and custom build property, may be eligible for approval.
• Shell properties, designed to allow customisation of internal walls, completion of second fix and final fit out are permissable
• Leasehold houses are not eligible for the scheme, except in the exceptional circumstances permitted under the Help to Buy scheme.  For leasehold flats, ground rent must not exceed a peppercorn per annum.
• Self build warranties are required and need to be in place before completion.