Cambridge Building Society has extended its ‘Rent to Home’ rent-return housing scheme with the addition of two family-sized houses.
The investment in the latest two homes – in Northstowe and Longstanton – brings the portfolio in this community initiative to five properties.
Rent to Home was initially launched by Cambridge in 2019 to give first-time buyers (FTBs) 70% of their rent back after three years which they can use as a deposit to buy a property.
The initial properties in the scheme are flats and the two new ones are recently constructed modern end terraces aimed at families who might struggle to rent and save for a house deposit at the same time.
Cambridge chief commercial officer Carole Charter said: “Our Rent to Home scheme has been a phenomenal success and delivered exactly what we intended, which was to help a first-time buyer get a foot on the housing ladder, so it made sense to expand it further to help even more people have a home.
“We have already had tremendous interest in these properties and we look forward to the ballot in the next few weeks to welcome two new sets of tenants.”
The properties are rented at market rates of £1,300 and £1,450 for a maximum of three years. After this time, the tenants will receive 70% of the rent back as a home buying deposit when they take a mortgage through Cambridge. This is estimated to be between £32,000 and £36,000.
