Open Market HomeBuy is a low-cost Government-backed home-ownership programme that aims to help people to secure 100% funding of the value of their first home. It is a flexible equity loan scheme designed to help households earning up to a maximum household income of £60,000 a year - subject to certain criteria - to buy their own homes on the open market.

The products - which are explained below in further detail - are designed specifically with the aim of helping local authority and housing association tenants, key workers and others who are not able to afford to buy a suitable home in an area where they live or work without assistance.

Key features of the Open Market HomeBuy programme include:

• you can choose between two distinct products, Ownhome and MyChoiceHomeBuy;
• you can borrow between 15% and 50% of the value of the property at a low, or no, interest rate;
• if you qualify for a mortgage of £110,000, for example, you could potentially purchase a property worth up to the current national house price average of £220,000;
• if you took up the Ownhome product, you would have a five-year interest free period on the equity loan element of you borrowing; and
• if you opted for MyChoiceHomeBuy, you would have the flexibility of obtaining your conventional mortgage from any qualified lender.

New Build HomeBuy - this offers new homes on a part buy/part rent basis where you purchase a share in the property, typically 50% and pay a discounted rent on the remaining share. Tendring District Council works with a number of housing associations to develop new affordable homes across the district.

Resales - where existing shared owners wish to sell their properties, they are marketed and sold to people who have applied to Moat.

Discounted Rent - this is a scheme for key workers only and it offers them the opportunity to rent a newly built home, at approximately 80% of ordinary market rents for homes of a similar size and specification in the surrounding areas.