Your First Home in London: Price Caps by Borough and What Developers Need Ready
Your First Home lets first-time buyers purchase a new-build home in England with a 2.5% deposit and a 20% government equity loan. In London it comes with two price caps: £650,000 in inner London and £500,000 in outer London. The Chancellor confirmed £4.7bn of funding in the 28 October Budget. Developers can register from December, buyers can reserve from February 2027, and the first completions can happen from April 2027.
The cap line is where people will trip up. Haringey, Barnet, Enfield and Brent count as outer London for this scheme, so new homes there are capped at £500,000. Camden, Islington and Hackney are inner London, at £650,000. If you build or sell new homes in north London, that line decides which units qualify.
A new-build living room shot by RADcreator. Finished units like this are exactly what Your First Home buyers will be looking at from February.
What is Your First Home and who can use it?
It is the government's successor to Help to Buy, aimed at buyers without a large deposit or family help. The terms confirmed so far:
A 2.5% deposit plus a 20% government equity loan, interest-free for the first five years
First-time buyers only, buying a new build in England to live in as their main home
The home must come from a developer registered with the scheme and sit within the local price cap
Household income of £140,000 or less in London, or £110,000 elsewhere
£4.7bn of lending over five years, aimed at around 70,000 buyers, with funding capped each year
Developers pay a fee to take part, on a sliding scale designed to protect smaller schemes
The government says it will publish details of eligible homes, participating developers, lenders and how to apply before applications open.
Which London boroughs get the £650,000 cap and which get £500,000?
London has two cap areas, based on the London Plan 2021 split between inner and outer London. The 14 inner boroughs, capped at £650,000, are the City of London, Camden, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster. Every other borough is outer London, capped at £500,000.
Here is how that lands in north London, next to what homes there actually sell for.
Borough | Your First Home cap | Average sold price, all homes (Aug 2026) |
|---|---|---|
Camden | £650,000 | £798,486 |
Islington | £650,000 | £654,286 |
Hackney | £650,000 | £619,408 |
Haringey | £500,000 | £633,221 |
Barnet | £500,000 | £592,892 |
Brent | £500,000 | £555,687 |
Enfield | £500,000 | £474,855 |
Caps: Home Builders Federation summary of the Budget documents. Prices: HM Land Registry UK House Price Index, August 2026, all property types.
Dark boroughs get the £650,000 cap, light boroughs £500,000. Free to share with a link back to this page.
Haringey and Hackney share a border, but a new flat on the Haringey side is capped £150,000 lower. If you have seen Haringey described as inner London elsewhere, that comes from a different definition. For this scheme it is outer.
The averages above include houses, so most new-build flats come in lower. Land Registry put the average London new build at £475,340 in June, under even the outer cap. The squeeze is on bigger units: a two or three-bed new build in Haringey or Barnet can easily price above £500,000 and miss out.
Hanover Road, NW10. Brent is outer London, so the £500,000 cap applies to new builds here.
Why does this matter so much for London developers?
Because London's new-build market has struggled since Help to Buy closed. Help to Buy was behind around 54% of London new home sales in the first nine months of 2021, according to Dataloft figures in Foxtons' London Report, and Molior names its closure as one of the main reasons sales fell.
The numbers since then are grim:
Molior says sales of new homes to individual buyers in London have fallen 67% since 2022
A record 4,629 completed new homes were unsold at the end of June, the most since Molior started tracking in 1997
Another 13,770 homes under construction were unsold, 49% of everything being built
Your First Home is the first equity loan for London buyers since 2023. Developers holding finished, unsold flats under the cap get a new pool of buyers from February.
Riverside apartment blocks from the air. Drone shots like this sell location before buyers ever visit.
What are the catches?
It helps, but it is not Help to Buy.
It is smaller. Zoopla expects about half the impact of Help to Buy, with over a third of new homes eligible and up to 30,000 first-time buyers a year using it.
The London caps are tight. One London developer pointed out that a couple on £140,000 could afford around £750,000, but they are capped at £650,000 inner and £500,000 outer. Help to Buy allowed £600,000 across the whole capital.
Watch the pricing. The OBR expects only a marginal effect on supply and a possible small rise in prices. A London buying agent has warned that some developers priced up towards the threshold under Help to Buy, and buyers' advisers will be looking for it.
Funding is capped each year, so popular developments could hit their allocation.
The London figures are indicative. £650,000 and £500,000 are the caps published at the Budget, with fuller detail still to come.
What should developers have ready before February?
Developers registered by December can take reservations from February. First-time buyers will start looking well before then, and most of that looking happens on Rightmove and social media.
Date | What happens |
|---|---|
December 2026 | Developer registration opens |
February 2027 | Buyers can reserve |
April 2027 | First completions possible |
A buyer putting down 2.5% will scrutinise every listing, and many will be comparing your units with resale flats on the same street. What they need to see:
Completed units, photographed properly. Finished stock should be marketed with real photos, not CGIs. Bracketed and blended, so the windows keep their view and the verticals stay straight.
A floor plan for every unit type. First-time buyers shortlist on layout and size.
A walkthrough video. Buyers can judge layout and light before booking a viewing, which saves your sales team time when enquiries pick up.
Location and aerial footage. Shows transport, green space and the wider site in a way ground photos cannot.
Vertical clips for social. First-time buyers are the group most likely to find a development on Instagram or TikTok first.
New-build kitchen, Burrows Road, NW10. Finished units sell on real photos, not CGIs.
Property Photography, London: Blended interiors, straight verticals, floor plan included. Usually back within 24 hours. From £125.
Property Video Tours: Vertical tours for social from £100. Cinematic walkthroughs for portals and YouTube from £250.
Drone and Aerial Filming: Site, location and context shots, planned around London's airspace restrictions.
What else did the Budget change for London property?
Stamp duty: no change.
Landlords: tax on property income rises another two points from 6 April 2027, to 24%, 44% and 49%.
Homes worth £2m or more: the council tax surcharge is confirmed for April 2028. Owners pay it, there is a deferral scheme, and homes left empty for 12 months or more pay a 100% premium.
Mortgages: the average two-year fix was 5.55% in Rightmove's October data, and markets expect the Bank of England to raise rates on 5 November.
For borough-by-borough price data, see our London property market report.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Your First Home price cap in London?
£650,000 for new builds in the 14 inner London boroughs and £500,000 in the rest of London. These are the caps published at the 28 October 2026 Budget.
Is Haringey inner or outer London for Your First Home?
Outer. The scheme uses the London Plan 2021 boroughs, which put Haringey, Barnet, Enfield and Brent in outer London, so the cap there is £500,000.
When does Your First Home start?
Developer registration opens in December 2026, buyers can reserve from February 2027, and completions can happen from April 2027.
What is the income limit for Your First Home in London?
£140,000 household income in London and £110,000 elsewhere in England.
Can Your First Home be used to buy a resale home?
No. It only applies to new builds from developers registered with the scheme.
Launching or selling new homes in 2027?
Photography, floor plans, walkthrough video and aerial footage for London developers and new homes teams. Photos usually back within 24 hours.
Sources
Home Builders Federation, Chancellor publishes details of Your First Home scheme, 28 October 2026
Building Design, Healey announces £4.7bn for Your First Home scheme
Financial Reporter, Budget confirms details of 2.5% deposit first-time buyer scheme (Zoopla)
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