Your First Home pre-registration: is it open yet?

Is Your First Home pre-registration open?

Your First Home pre-registration is not open, and no date has been set by the government. The announcement of 26 September 2026 says only that costs and “implementation timelines” will be announced by the Chancellor at the Budget on 28 October 2026 (GOV.UK). ITV News reports that pre-registration is expected to open by the end of 2026 (ITV News); that is a report, not a government commitment. There is no waiting list you can join today, anywhere.

This page will change the day that changes. If you want to hear first, use the update form at the bottom.

How Help to Buy applications worked

Your First Home is another government equity loan scheme, so the Help to Buy process is the best guide we have to the new one, even though nothing about the process has been announced. Under Help to Buy 2021 to 2023 (GOV.UK):

1. You chose a new-build home from a registered housebuilder and paid a reservation fee of up to £500, deducted from the price later.
2. The housebuilder sent you a property information form, which you completed and returned with proof of your deposit and a mortgage agreement in principle.
3. A Help to Buy agent (a Homes England contractor) checked your eligibility and affordability and issued an “authority to proceed”, valid for three months.
4. You applied for a mortgage from a participating lender and instructed a solicitor.
5. The agent issued an “authority to exchange”; you exchanged contracts and completed, usually within six months of the reservation.

Nothing about this is confirmed for Your First Home. But the pieces (a participating developer, an eligibility check, a participating lender, a deadline) are the standard shape of a government equity loan, and the announcement’s wording about developers “signing up to the scheme” points the same way.

What “pre-registration” might mean

Two readings are possible, and the government has not said which. It could be a register of interest that lets you receive information and be told when applications open. Or it could be a formal first stage, where your eligibility is checked before you reserve a home. We will say plainly which it is when the detail is published.

What to get ready now

• Proof of deposit: statements showing your 2.5% plus fees. The deposit page works out the figure.
• Proof of income: three months of payslips, or two years of accounts if self-employed, and a recent P60.
• A mortgage agreement in principle from any lender, so you know your borrowing range. It costs nothing and is not a commitment.
• ID and address documents for the anti-money-laundering checks every solicitor and lender runs.
• A shortlist of new-build developments in your price range, ready to check against the price caps when they are published.
• A clear answer on eligibility: first-time buyer status for everyone buying, household income, England, new build.

Watch out for copycats

New schemes attract fake “application” sites, and this one has a name that invites them. Expect the scheme to run through GOV.UK and through housebuilders signed up to it, as Help to Buy did; nothing about the process has been announced yet. Do not pay anyone to register you, do not hand over passport scans or bank details to a site you have not verified, and do not trust a page because it has a crown on it. This site is independent, takes no applications and charges nothing; we link to the official page and nothing else.