Elisa and Matteo face the housing challenge with MyChoiceHomeBuy from MHO
Following their marriage last year, Elisa Foppa, a recruitment advisor, and her husband Matteo Scaringi, a business analyst and market researcher, bought their first home together this summer, through Metropolitan Home Ownership’s (MHO) MyChoiceHomeBuy scheme.
MyChoiceHomeBuy is an Open Market HomeBuy product launched in April this year. Backed by funds from the government (through the Housing Corporation) and MHO, it is designed to help homebuyers – typically first-time buyers who are priced out of home ownership – buy a suitable home.
The happy couple were still unpacking, when they welcomed a high profile guest to their new home on the day the Government launched ‘Facing the housing challenge’, a paper setting out steps to address the current housing market as well as longer term trends.
Elisa said: “Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, came to visit. It was a really great surprise. She was very nice and kept us at ease. We chatted about our new home, the property market and how MyChoiceHomeBuy worked for us.”
Graeme Moran, Managing Director of MHO, who escorted the Minister on the visit, said:
“Our MyChoiceHomeBuy product is already proving to be very popular and its great to see it benefiting such a hard working couple as Elisa and Marco. The equity loans we offer act similarly to a large cash deposit, making the purchase of a home much more affordable to customers and giving excellent protection to lenders mortgages.”
Eligible homebuyers can choose to buy either a newly built or older home on the open market with a flexible and affordable MyChoiceHomeBuy equity loan of between 15 per cent and 50 per cent of the purchase price. This can be used to top up what they can afford to borrow from a participating mortgage lender.
Elisa and Matteo bought a ground floor flat in Muswell Hill for £250,000 using a MyChoiceHomeBuy equity loan of £71,500 (28.6% of the total equity).
Having shared a flat with others in Crouch End for the past few years, Elisa and Matteo realised that they needed more room and wanted their own place with more privacy.
Matteo said: “We were so pushed for space, we even had to resort to putting our wedding presents in a shed!”
Initially, the couple were concerned about the costs of buying a home outright on the open market and were considering their options when a friend told Elisa about MyChoiceHomeBuy.
“My friend explained how we could apply for the scheme through the MHO Housing Options service, even though we weren’t key workers. I found further information online but it was good to have someone I could trust telling me about how it all works,” said Elisa.
Elisa and Matteo applied online at www.housingoptions.co.uk and found a home within 10 days of being accepted for MyChoiceHomeBuy.
Matteo said: “Viewing the apartment was very exciting. It was perfect, everything from the flooring, to the heating, the kitchen and the garden was newly done – after two hours we decided to make an offer!
“Although, our monthly outgoings have increased, we know the £1,200 monthly cost is manageable and is a sound investment for our future,”