The Cheffins Planning team has submitted its first ‘First Homes’ application as part of a housing development in Whittlesey, near Peterborough.
The development, which will consist of 58 homes in total, will include a number of ‘First Homes’ under the government’s new initiative which was launched in April. The ‘First Homes’ element at the scheme will take up 27 per cent of the affordable housing threshold.
Claire Shannon, Associate at Cheffins says, “This is our first application which includes a ‘First Homes’ element. Set to increase home ownership throughout the country, the ‘First Homes’ are different from ‘affordable housing’ as they are to be sold at a discount of 30 per cent to market price for first time buyers and key workers only, with a maximum household income of £80,000. Whilst the Government’s Help to Buy scheme has already helped over 210,000 people get onto the property ladder, the idea behind ‘First Homes’ is to allow first-time-buyers to purchase a property within their local area at a lower price. The hope is that this will save buyers around £100,000 on the price of an average new build house in England.
We are pleased to see that developers are starting to include ‘First Homes’ as part of their Section 106 agreements, and expect to see an increase in the number of applications for these over the coming months. As Cambridge and the surrounding area sees some of the highest property values in the country, affordability for local First Time Buyers has been a consistent issue and we hope that this new initiative ought to help more people to get onto the ladder.”
For further information on this for property developers, please don’t hesitate to contact the Cheffins Planning & Development team on planning@cheffins.co.uk