The government’s First Homes scheme has launched today, with discounted houses for local people and key workers now available.

The First Homes scheme is designed to help local first-time buyers onto the property ladder by offering homes at a discount of at least 30% compared to the market price.

That same percentage will then be passed on with the sale of the property to future first-time buyers.

A number of high-street lenders, such as Lloyds and Nationwide Building Society, along with local building societies and community lenders, announced that they will be offering high loan to value mortgages against First Homes to support the roll-out of the scheme.

Richard Fearon, CEO of the Leeds Building Society said: “We’re pleased to be supporting the First Homes scheme, which aims to help people realise their dreams of owning their own home.

“Supporting schemes like this is a way to reaffirm our support for first time buyers and other borrowers who are not well served by the wider market. Leeds Building Society helps these customers through a range of mortgages, from traditional high LTV (loan to value) lending to affordable housing initiatives such as shared ownership.

“We’ve experienced some of our busiest ever months for home purchase in 2020 and so far in 2021. Our purpose as a building society is to help people save and have the home they want, so I’m particularly proud that during 2020 we helped 8,000 first time buyers and continued to offer 95% LTV shared ownership mortgages throughout the pandemic.”