Use a mortgage (or savings) to fund an agreed percentage of the purchase price for a home on the open market. Sovereign and West Oxfordshire District Council will provide you with a loan on the remaining cost, up to a maximum value of £50,000 depending on your financial circumstances.

No interest will be charged for the first three years of your loan and you need only pay back the loan itself when you sell the property, pay your final mortgage instalment or at the end of 25 years. 

Who is eligible to apply?
You can be considered for this scheme if you are:

• in housing need AND have a local connection with West Oxfordshire
• of a household earning less than £60,000
• unable to buy a suitable home in West Oxfordshire without the assistance of the equity loan.

 You will be considered a priority applicant if you are a:

• first time buyer
• key worker
• council or housing association resident
• household that has been privately renting for more than three years

What can I buy?
You may buy a home currently for sale on the open market, which meets the needs of your family. There are a few exceptions which will be explained to you when you apply.

What are the costs?
You should ensure that you can meet all the initial costs of purchasing a home which may include legal transactions such as stamp duty, moving costs and your mortgage deposit. You wont be charged interest on your equity loan for the first three years. From year four you will be charged at 1.75%. This will increase to 3.25% in year six and 3.75% in year eleven. From year four there will also be an annual review with an additional yearly increase of RPI plus 0.5%.

Selling your home
You can sell you home at any time after the first 12 months of ownership. At this stage your loan must be repaid based on the percentage you borrowed and your final selling price.

Registering for Open Market HomeBuy
Firstly you will need to register with the HomeBuy agent for the area, Catalyst Housing Group and be on the West Oxfordshire District Council housing list.

Web: www.catalysthomebuy.org.uk
Telephone: 0845 601 7729

Then contact us and we will talk you through the process. Please do not make any financial or legal commitment to buy a home until you have received our agreement to do so. You can contact us on 0845 602 1618 and press Option 2 (Bristol team) to discuss Open Market Homebuy.

You can download our step-by-step guide to buying an Open Market HomeBuy property here.