Potential first-time buyers might want to check their credentials this weekend.

Their prospects for getting on the housing ladder could be looking much brighter.

Those who have never owned a property might be able to take advantage of the newly revised government initiative to make the first step towards home ownership less of a financial strain.

The Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme launched this month is only available for those buying their first home. The property also has to be newly built.

Previous incarnations of Help to Buy included homes that had been lived in before. Not this time.

The latest version of the incentive is due to run until the end of March 2023.

Under the rules of the new scheme, the minimum you can borrow is five per cent of the purchase price. The maximum is 20 per cent.

The money lent by participating banks under Help to Buy terms will be interest-free for five years but it is price capped according to the geographic region of England where the houses and flats are being built – Scotland, Wales and Ireland have their own rules.

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Lenders offering Help to Buy mortgages in England include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander.

The price limit for homes bought through the new scheme in the South East of England is £437,600.

Not all new developments offer the Help to Buy incentive so check first before getting up your hopes.

Pictured above are Harry Adaway, a 23-year-old engineer in the car industry and Tiegan Baldwin, 22. Tiegan works at a local wildlife centre.

They used a previous version of Help to Buy to get on the first step of the housing ladder.

The couple spent two years saving for the five per cent deposit to buy their smart two bedroom flat at Martin Grant Homes Kingsfield Court development, in Aylesbury.

It’s like a show home. They moved in at the end of last year.

Until then, rather than shell out for a rented flat to be together, they each moved back home to live with their parents.

They also opened Help to Buy ISAs which added a further 25 per cent to the kitty to put towards stylish furniture for their future home.

Harry remembers: “Even after saving for a couple of years we thought we were still a long way off from being able to afford to buy.

“It wasn’t until we spoke to a mortgage adviser last summer that we realised by using Help to Buy we could make the move sooner.

“As first time buyers, a low deposit scheme was essential to enabling us to buy. Without it we would have found it impossible any time soon.

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“If we had needed a bigger deposit like most lenders have required over the past year, then it just wouldn’t have happened.

“We also ended up buying off plan, which gave us more time to save up for furniture and other bits for the home.”

This week the sales team for the developer at Kingsfiield Court said the last two bedroom apartment on the site had been sold.

It had been on the market for £231,950 and was eligible for the government’s new 95 per cent mortgage guarantee scheme

The spokesman at Martin Grant HQ said more apartments would be coming on stream on the Aylesbury development at the end of this year.