Lance Bombardier Joel Daye and his wife Simona are the proud owners of a three-bedroom detached house thanks to the money they’ve been able to borrow through the Forces Help to Buy scheme. Daye joined the Army in 2008 and qualified for a £10,000 interest-free loan, allowing them to buy the family home they’ve always wanted and giving them a permanent base to raise their young children.
“We wanted to purchase our own home as we saw the rent of service families accommodation, as little as it was, as wasted money and thought it could be put to better use paying a mortgage,” Daye said. “We used the loan to pay for the Stamp Duty and all fees, which freed up funds to put towards making it the house of our dreams.”
The Forces Help to Buy scheme launched in April 2014 as a three-year pilot, but has recently been extended to the end of December 2019. It is available to regular servicemen and servicewomen in the armed forces, allowing them to borrow up to 50% of their salary to a maximum of £25,000, interest free, and put it towards buying their own home.
How to qualify
To qualify for the scheme you must:
- have completed the pre-requisite length of service
- have more than six months left to serve when you apply
- meet the right medical criteria.
As long as the property will be lived in by the service person or their immediate family, then it should qualify for the scheme. What’s more is that the loan can be used in conjunction with the government’s Help to Buy Schemes (Equity Loan and Shared Ownership).
Celebrate Armed Forces Day
On 29 June, we will join the rest of the UK in celebrating Armed Forces Day – a special event dedicated to supporting the men and women in our Armed Forces community. It will be marked by a national service held in Salisbury as well as a series of local events across the country. And what better way for us to show our appreciation than by helping the brave men and women who serve our country to get onto the property ladder and put down permanent roots?
Further information on the Forces Help to Buy scheme is available by visiting the ‘Purchasing assistance’ section of our website and clicking on ‘Armed Forces Discount’.
To find out more about the Harron Homes developments in your area and how we can help you buy your dream home, please visit our ‘find a home’ page.