The government has widened the scope of its Welcome Home Loan scheme which is designed to help people buy their own homes.
'Cabinet has agreed to new criteria for the Welcome Home Loan, doubling the proportion of the national housing market accessible to people without a deposit under the scheme,' Housing Minister Chris Carter says.
The Welcome Home Loan Scheme underwrites private lenders, such as banks and building societies, to give home loans to people on the margins of traditional mortgage criteria.
It was originally established to help a niche of households which research suggested could technically service a loan but were effectively locked out of the housing market because they lacked a sufficiently large deposit to meet lending requirements.
To date the scheme has helped about 1800 people, which is well below expectations. Carter says the scheme “needs a shot in the arm', hence these changes.
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