Help to Buy Has Ended: How to Buy a New-Build in Battersea Now

If you are searching for Help to Buy in Battersea, the short answer is that it has gone. The government’s Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme closed to new applications on 31 October 2022, and the last homes had to complete by 31 March 2023. There is no equity loan to apply for on a new-build in 2026.

That is worth saying plainly, because a lot of older brochures and forum threads still talk about it as if it were live. It is not.

The good news is that there are still routes into a Battersea or Nine Elms new-build with less than a full deposit. They work differently from Help to Buy, and each has its own details worth understanding before you commit.

Help to Buy gave you an equity loan of up to 40% in London. Nothing on the market now replaces it exactly. The nearest options are shared ownership and low-deposit mortgages, and they change the maths in different ways.

Shared ownership: the main way in

Shared ownership is the closest thing to a successor. You buy a share of the flat, usually between 10% and 75%, and pay rent to a housing provider on the share you do not own. The home is leasehold, and you can often buy further shares later, a process called staircasing.

Near Battersea, shares start low enough to matter. Entry prices for a share of a one-bed have been advertised from around £100,000 in the surrounding SW and SE postcodes, which puts a foot on the ladder for buyers who could never raise a full Battersea deposit.

One thing worth checking with shared ownership in these amenity-rich buildings is what your service charge includes. To keep charges affordable, some schemes set a lower charge for shared-ownership homes that does not cover every luxury facility, such as a pool or spa. That is a sensible way to keep monthly costs down, and it is worth confirming so you know exactly what you are paying for.

Check the rent on the unowned share, the service charge, the lease terms, and the staircasing costs together. Shared ownership can be the right answer, but only once you have seen the full monthly figure.

First Homes: a discount, if you can find one

First Homes is a government scheme that sells new-build homes to first-time buyers at a discount of 30% to 50% off the market price, with the discount passing to the next buyer when you sell. There are eligibility rules on income and, often, a local connection.

The honest position is that supply is patchy. Not every development offers First Homes units, and in a high-value area like Battersea the allocation can be small. It is worth asking a sales team directly, but do not build your plan around finding one.

Deposit Unlock and low-deposit mortgages

Deposit Unlock is a mortgage scheme backed by the house-building industry that lets you buy a new-build with a 5% deposit, offered through participating developers and lenders. Standard 95% mortgages are also available again across the wider market, so a new-build no longer needs a Help to Buy loan to be reachable on a smaller deposit.

Two things to watch on any new-build mortgage. Lenders can ask for a larger deposit on a new-build than on an older property, and your mortgage offer usually lasts about six months. If the building completes late, which off-plan purchases often do, you may have to reapply. Some lenders offer new-build products with a longer nine to twelve month validity for exactly this reason. The buyer checklist covers completion risk in more detail.

Do not forget stamp duty relief

First-time buyers get stamp duty relief, which does some of the work Help to Buy used to do on affordability. It will not stretch as far in Battersea as in cheaper areas, given local prices, but it is money you keep. Confirm the current thresholds with your solicitor, since they change.

What this means in Battersea

New-build prices here start higher than the London average, so the scheme you use matters. As a rough guide, one-bed flats run around £450,000 to £650,000 and two-beds around £600,000 to £900,000, with park and riverside stock well above that.

At those numbers, shared ownership is often the only route that turns a Battersea new-build from aspiration into a real purchase. Low-deposit mortgages help if your income supports the borrowing. First Homes is worth a question but rarely the answer.

Whichever route you take, work out the full monthly cost, not just the deposit and the mortgage. The service charge is part of that, so it is worth knowing before you commit. The service charge guide sets out what is normal here, and the buying in Battersea guide covers the wider purchase.

Sources

• GOV.UK, Affordable home ownership schemes (the current government routes, now that Help to Buy has closed).
• GOV.UK, Shared ownership homes: buying, improving and selling (the 10% to 75% initial share and how staircasing works).
• GOV.UK, First Homes scheme (the 30% to 50% first-time-buyer discount and eligibility).