First-time buyers learn which housebuilders will offer affordable new homes with FirstBuy funding

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has announced the allocations for its FirstBuy scheme, announced earlier this year by Chancellor George Osborne in the Budget of 2011. The scheme is set to assist thousands of first-time homebuyers, who will benefit from an equity loan for up to 20 per cent of the price of a new home jointly funded by the housebuilder and FirstBuy.

Around £180 million has been allocated to more than 100 housebuilders and housing associations around England, with the first new homes expected to be available for sale from September. The maximum value of new homes available with FirstBuy funding will be £280,000.

"We had an excellent response from our partners - including smaller local builders - and have been able to allocate funding that gives first-time buyers the assistance they need," said HCA chief executive Pat Ritchie.

The qualifying criteria for the new scheme will follow the template established by the previous government's popular HomeBuy Direct scheme, with a maximum household income of £60,000 per annum (higher in London where the buyer needs to purchase a home with three or more bedrooms) for first-time buyers otherwise unable to purchase a suitable home on the open market. The buyer will have to provide a five per cent deposit and raise a mortgage for the balancing 75 per cent of the purchase price.

Existing local HomeBuy Agents are expected to administer the new FirstBuy scheme and carry out the eligibility checks on applicants for the funds.

"Hundreds of first-time buyers in the West Midlands now have the chance to move into a new home with a deposit of as little as £2,998," said Graydon Worthing, Sales Director at Barratt West Midlands. "A lot of people in the West Midlands will be eligible to take advantage of FirstBuy, so I would urge anyone interested to contact us as soon as possible. We have limited availability in this area but we know that demand will be high because thousands of people have already pre-registered their interest on our website."

Karen Coleman, Head of Orbit HomeBuy Agents, said: "As soon as the news about FirstBuy was announced in the March budget we started receiving enquiries and judging by the response we've seen so far we expect FirstBuy to prove incredibly popular. We have had over 150 enquiries about the scheme so far and are fully geared up to deal with the increased number of enquiries and applications that we expect to begin receiving shortly and look forward to delivering the allocations across our regions."

You can check the allocation of funds for each of the regions of England using the following links:

• East and South East England
• London
• Midlands
• North East England and Yorkshire
• North West England
• South and South West England