With the new Deposit Unlock scheme, first time buyers and home movers can buy a new build home with just a 5% deposit.

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While the Deposit Unlock scheme is still fairly new, it may prove popular with buyers as a way to purchase a new build home with a small deposit as lenders are often reluctant to offer high loan-to-value mortgages on new build homes.

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Mortgage lenders are often stricter on the amount they are willing to lend on the purchase of new builds. This is to protect themselves from the inevitable devaluation of the property in the early years and other risk factors. As such, they often set the minimum deposit for new build properties at 15% or even 25%.

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Deposit Unlock gets round that and allows you to buy a new build with just a 5% deposit. With the Deposit Unlock scheme, the house builders pay to insure the mortgages instead. And they use some of the money from selling the homes for this purpose; the aim is to make lenders more comfortable about offering high LTV mortgages on new builds.

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This scheme is exclusively for new build homes.