Your First Home scheme calculator with worked examples

Your First Home calculator

Home price

Your deposit

Monthly mortgage payment

£1,042 a month

The equity loan is interest-free at first, so this is your whole monthly cost to begin with.

At 5% over 25 years. Change both under "More options".

Your deposit (2.5%)

£5,750

Government equity loan (20%)

Announced as 20%. Help to Buy allowed smaller loans; lower it here if the rules allow. Announced, rules due at Budget Government announcement.

Mortgage you need (77.5% of the price)

£178,250

More options

Interest rate on your mortgage

Use the interest rate from your mortgage quote to see what you might pay each month. The starting rate was checked on 26 September 2026, for a mortgage covering about 77.5% of the home price. Assumed

Years to pay off your mortgage

More years usually means a smaller monthly payment, but more interest paid overall.

How much could you borrow?

Your yearly household income before tax (optional)

Buying together? Add both yearly incomes before tax. This gives a rough idea of what you could borrow. Your income stays in your browser unless you choose to share, copy or embed your result.

Your borrowing estimate Assumed

This rough estimate uses 4.5 times your yearly household income before tax. For a mortgage of £178,250, that means an income of about £39,611 a year.

This is a rough estimate, not a lender's offer or advice. Lenders also check your spending, credit history and government loan. They may offer more or less.

Buying without the government loan

Interest rate without the government loan

Use a mortgage quote for buying with a 5% deposit and no government loan. This only changes the comparison below. The starting rate was checked on 26 September 2026. Assumed

The costs side by side

Compare the same home with a 5% deposit and a mortgage covering the remaining 95% of the price.

Deposit, mortgage and monthly payment with Your First Home, compared with buying without the scheme using a 5% deposit
Item	Your First Home	Without the scheme
Deposit	£5,750	£11,500
Mortgage	£178,250	£218,500
Monthly payment	£1,042	£1,348

The scheme costs £306 a month less during the interest-free years, and needs £5,750 less deposit. If both mortgages had the same rate the gap would be £235 a month, so £71 of the saving comes from the cheaper rate a smaller mortgage gets.

Paying back the government loan

Yearly change in your home's value

Try a possible rise or fall to see how it could change what you owe. Use a minus sign for a fall. This is a what-if example, not a prediction.

Years before you pay back the government loan

For example, when you might sell the home or clear the government loan. This is separate from the years you take to pay off your mortgage.

What might you repay to the government? Expected, detail to come

This loan is separate from your mortgage. It is expected to work like Help to Buy: you repay the same percentage of your home's value at the time, rather than the amount you originally borrowed. If your home's value rises, the amount you repay rises too.

Government loan repayment at different future values of your home
If your home is worth	You repay the government	Change from the amount borrowed
Value falls 10%: £207,000	£41,400	-£4,600
Value unchanged: £230,000	£46,000	+£0
Value rises 10%: £253,000	£50,600	+£4,600
Value rises 25%: £287,500	£57,500	+£11,500
After 5 years at 3% a year: £266,633	£53,327	+£7,327

When interest on the government loan starts Assumed

The rules have not been announced yet. This illustration uses the Help to Buy rules: no interest on the government loan for 5 years, then interest at 1.75% a year on the amount borrowed. The rate rises each year.

Year 6: government loan interest of £67.08 a month. Together with your mortgage, that is £1,109 a month.
Year 7: government loan interest of £69.77 a month, at a yearly rate of 1.82%.
These interest payments do not pay off the government loan. You still repay its full share of your home's value later.

Saving for your deposit

How much can you put aside each month?

See how long it could take to save the deposit, starting from zero. This does not change your mortgage payment.

How long could saving your deposit take?

If you save £300 a month, reaching a deposit of £5,750 would take about 1 year and 8 months. In a Lifetime ISA, with the 25% government bonus, about 1 year and 4 months. Can you use a Lifetime ISA with the scheme, and what is replacing it?

Tax when you buy (stamp duty)

Tax when you buy (stamp duty) Confirmed

As a first-time buyer you would pay £0 in stamp duty (first-time buyer relief saves you £2,100). How stamp duty works for first-time buyers.

About these figures

New-build homes in England only. £230,000 is the average starter home price (Rightmove) used in reports of the announcement.

The scheme is announced as needing a deposit of at least 2.5%. Announced, rules due at Budget

Figures are illustrations, not quotes or advice. A mortgage is a loan secured on your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Figures are rounded to the nearest pound. How these numbers are worked out.

The full Your First Home scheme calculator: change every assumption, share a link to your result, and check worked examples at four prices.

Status: Based on the government announcement of 26 September 2026. Full rules are due at the Budget on 28 October 2026. Every figure is labelled as confirmed, announced, expected or assumed. Some figures on this page are announced or confirmed and some are our working assumptions; the calculator and the methodology page label each one.

Page last updated 27 September 2026. Assumptions are explained on the methodology page.

How to use this calculator

This is the full version of the calculator on our home page: the same engine, with every assumption open to change, a share link for your result and worked examples at four prices below. Type the price of the new-build home you have in mind. The calculator splits it into your deposit, the government’s 20% equity loan and the mortgage you would need, then shows the monthly payment next to a normal 95% mortgage on the same home. Open “More options” to change the interest rate, the mortgage term, the size of the loan, or to add your household income for an affordability check.

Everything is worked out from the rules announced on 26 September 2026 (GOV.UK). Where a rule is not yet announced, the calculator uses the Help to Buy rules and says so with an “Assumed” badge. The methodology page lists every formula and assumption.

What the results mean

Your deposit is 2.5% of the price, the minimum the scheme is expected to need. You can enter a bigger deposit; a bigger deposit means a smaller mortgage.
Government equity loan is 20% of the price. You do not receive this money; it goes straight to the housebuilder as part of the purchase. You own the whole home; the loan is secured on it, and you are expected to repay it as 20% of the home’s value, not the sum borrowed.
Mortgage you need is what is left: 77.5% of the price at the standard settings. A mortgage this size usually gets a cheaper rate than a 95% mortgage, and lenders often see it as lower risk.
Monthly payment is the repayment mortgage at the rate and term shown. During the interest-free period this is your whole monthly cost for the home loan, though not your whole housing cost: add buildings insurance, any service charge and council tax.
Against a 95% mortgage shows the same home bought the ordinary way with a 5% deposit. The difference is the saving the government is talking about when it says buyers “could save hundreds of pounds per month” (GOV.UK).
What you repay shows the loan at different future values. This is the part most people miss: a rising market makes the loan more expensive to clear.
After the interest-free period is our assumption: interest-free for five years, then 1.75% of the sum borrowed, rising each year by inflation plus 2%, which is how Help to Buy worked (GOV.UK). The Budget may set different rules.
Can you borrow this much? applies the common lender rule of 4.5 times household income. It is a rough guide only; lenders assess the equity loan as a commitment too.
Stamp duty applies the first-time buyer relief that means nothing to pay up to £300,000 and 5% on the part between £300,001 and £500,000 (GOV.UK).

Worked examples at four prices

All at the standard settings: 2.5% deposit, 20% loan, 5% mortgage rate over 25 years, and a 95% mortgage at 5.55% for comparison (the best fixed rates at those loan-to-values on 26 September 2026, HomeOwners Alliance).

Home price	Your deposit	Equity loan	Mortgage	Monthly payment	95% mortgage monthly	Saving a month
£180,000	£4,500	£36,000	£139,500	£816	£1,055	£240
£230,000	£5,750	£46,000	£178,250	£1,042	£1,348	£306
£300,000	£7,500	£60,000	£232,500	£1,359	£1,759	£399
£400,000	£10,000	£80,000	£310,000	£1,812	£2,345	£533

Whether a £400,000 home qualifies depends on the local price caps, which have not been announced. The price caps page will carry the table as soon as they are.

What the calculator does not do

It does not tell you whether you qualify (nobody can yet; see eligibility), it does not include buildings insurance, service charges or council tax, it does not model interest-only mortgages, and it cannot know which lenders will take part. Help to Buy lenders required buyers to clear the equity loan when remortgaging in some cases, and repaying the loan needed a surveyor’s valuation and a £200 fee (GOV.UK); expect similar friction here.

In this section

Equity loan repayment calculator for Your First Home
Work out what you would repay on the Your First Home equity loan if your home rises or falls in value, and what it costs each month once interest starts.
House deposit calculator: how long to save 2.5% or 5%
House deposit calculator: type a price and your monthly saving to see a 2.5% or 5% deposit in pounds and how long it takes, with or without a Lifetime ISA.
Your First Home mortgage calculator: what you need to borrow
See the mortgage you would need under Your First Home (77.5% of the price with a 2.5% deposit), the monthly cost, and the income a lender usually wants.

Figures are illustrations, not quotes or advice. A mortgage is a loan secured on your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Frequently asked questions

Which numbers in this calculator are confirmed?

The 2.5% deposit and 20% equity loan come from the government's announcement, though the detail is due at the Budget on 28 October 2026. The interest-free period, the interest after it and the repayment rules are our assumptions based on Help to Buy, and each one is badged as such. Stamp duty rates are confirmed.

What mortgage rate should I use?

The default (5%) is the best fixed rate on 26 September 2026 for a mortgage covering about 77.5% of the price, from a lender that operates across England. Small-deposit 95% mortgages cost more, so the comparison uses 5.55%, the best 95% deals that day. Change either to test your own quotes.

Does the calculator include the government loan in the monthly cost?

During the interest-free period the loan costs nothing each month, so the monthly figure is just the mortgage. The 'after the interest-free period' box shows what the loan would add from year six under the Help to Buy rules, which we assume until the real rules are published.

Why does the repayment change with the home's value?

Because an equity loan is a share of the home, not a fixed sum. If the scheme follows Help to Buy, as we expect, you repay 20% of whatever the home is worth when you sell or pay it off. The scenarios table shows the repayment if the value falls 10%, stays the same, or rises 10% or 25%.

Can I share my result?

Yes. Press 'Copy a link to this result'. The link contains the figures you entered and nothing else; we do not store what you type, and your household income is only added to the link when you press the button.

Sources

GOV.UK: New first-time buyer scheme to be confirmed at Budget (the 2.5% deposit and 20% loan) (accessed 26 September 2026)
HomeOwners Alliance: First-time buyer mortgage rates, September 2026 (the default interest rates) (accessed 26 September 2026)
GOV.UK: Paying interest on your Help to Buy equity loan (the assumed interest rules after the free period) (accessed 26 September 2026)
GOV.UK: How to repay your equity loan using your own money (Help to Buy repayment rules we assume will carry over) (accessed 27 September 2026)
GOV.UK: Stamp Duty Land Tax rates for residential property (accessed 26 September 2026)

House deposit calculator: how long to save 2.5% or 5%
House deposit calculator: type a price and your monthly saving to see a 2.5% or 5% deposit in pounds and how long it takes, with or without a Lifetime ISA.
Equity loan repayment calculator for Your First Home
Work out what you would repay on the Your First Home equity loan if your home rises or falls in value, and what it costs each month once interest starts.
Your First Home mortgage calculator: what you need to borrow
See the mortgage you would need under Your First Home (77.5% of the price with a 2.5% deposit), the monthly cost, and the income a lender usually wants.
How does Your First Home work? The equity loan explained
How the Your First Home scheme works step by step: the 2.5% deposit, the 20% government equity loan, the mortgage, the interest-free years and repayment.