The housing market in general is overheated. This means that almost every home is heavily outbid and it is incredibly difficult for first-time buyers to get in. They do not yet have a home to sell. This is why people are looking for ways to help first-time buyers. In this article more about the starters loan.
When are you a starter in the housing market?
When you buy a home for the first time and do not leave a home of your own. Some municipalities lend these first-time homebuyers money to buy a house if you can't on the basis of your current salary. The starter loan then actually bridges the portion of the mortgage you are short of on your own. Imagine that you want to buy a house of 200,000 euros, but you can only borrow 180,000 euros, then you can apply for a starters loan for the 20,000 euros you lack. This starters loan is provided by the Stimuleringsfonds Volkshuisvesting and on their website you can see if your municipality participates.
The starters loan is an annuity loan and has a term of 30 years. During these 30 years you repay the same amount each month, so after 30 years the loan is completely paid off. An important advantage of the starter loan is that you do not have to pay repayment and interest during the first three years. This only starts from the fourth year. Should your income still not be sufficient to start repaying by then, we will look at what is possible.
The general conditions of the starters loan are:
- You must live in the property yourself and it must be your first home for sale.
- You can apply for the starter loan only from the municipality where you buy the house.
- You must be at least 18 years old
- The fixed-rate period of your mortgage must be at least 10 years
- A variable interest rate is not possible
- The mortgage and starter loan must meet NHG requirements
Of course, there are costs associated with the starter loan. The starter loan is considered a second mortgage and must be registered in the land register by the notary. You have to pay notary fees for this. In addition, the Housing Promotion Fund charges a one-time closing fee of 750 euros. As you can see from the general conditions, a Starter Loan can only be taken out with NHG (we also wrote an article about this, see What is NHG?). There is also a charge for this. In 2022, this is 0.6% of the mortgage amount.
