Equity loan repayment calculator for Your First Home

What this equity loan calculator shows

This calculator focuses on the part of Your First Home that surprises people: the 20% government loan is a share of your home’s value, so what you repay depends on what the home is worth when you repay it. Type a price and the calculator shows the loan in pounds, then what you would hand back if the value falls 10%, stays flat, or rises 10% or 25%, plus a custom line for any growth rate over any number of years.

It also shows what the loan would cost each month after the interest-free period, using the rules of the final Help to Buy loans (interest-free for five years, then 1.75% of the sum borrowed, rising each year with inflation plus 2%) because the government has announced “an initial interest free period” without saying how long or what follows (GOV.UK). Everything in that box is badged “Assumed” and will be replaced with the real rules after the Budget on 28 October 2026.

How to read the repayment table

On a £230,000 home with a £46,000 loan:

The custom row compounds your chosen growth rate: 3% a year for five years turns £230,000 into £266,633 and the repayment into £53,327. Under the Help to Buy rules the figure is set by a surveyor’s valuation at the time, valid for three months, and you pay a £200 administration fee (GOV.UK). When you sell, the loan is repaid from the sale proceeds (GOV.UK).

Why the interest box matters

Interest on the loan does not reduce it. Under Help to Buy, a buyer with a £46,000 loan paid about £67 a month in year six and more each year after, and still owed 20% of the home’s value at the end (GOV.UK). That is why many Help to Buy owners chose to remortgage and clear the loan around year five, when the interest started. The calculator shows years six and seven; the interest page shows the whole schedule.

Still have a Help to Buy loan? The same maths applies

If you bought with Help to Buy and still owe the equity loan, this calculator works for you too, because the repayment rule is the same one we expect for Your First Home: you repay the loan’s percentage of the home’s current value, not the sum you borrowed. Put your original purchase price in the price box and set the “Government equity loan” box under “More options” to your loan’s percentage (20% for most Help to Buy loans, up to 40% in London), and the repayment table shows what you would repay at different values today.

What the calculator cannot do is replace the official process. Under Help to Buy you repay through the scheme’s administrator after a valuation by a RICS surveyor that you pay for, in chunks of at least 10% of the value or all at once, with a £200 administration fee each time, and the valuation is valid for three months (GOV.UK). If you sell, the loan is repaid from the sale proceeds at the sale price or the valuation, whichever is higher (GOV.UK). Interest on loans taken from 2013 to 2021 rose each April by RPI plus 1%; loans from 2021 to 2023 rise by CPI plus 2%, which is what the interest box here assumes (GOV.UK). Set the “Years until you repay” box to the years you have left before your own interest starts to see the growth effect over that period.

Three questions to ask yourself with this calculator

1. If I sell in five years and prices have risen 15%, am I comfortable handing back the extra £6,900?
2. Could I clear the loan at year five by remortgaging, and would the new mortgage be affordable?
3. If prices fall 10%, does the smaller repayment console me, given the mortgage would then be larger than the home is worth?

The repayment page works through the strategies, and the pros and cons page weighs whether the scheme is right for your situation.