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Launch of new website to help Londoners onto the housing ladder
Apr 11 2011
On Monday 11 April, housing associations L&Q and Metroplitan Home Ownership (MHO) in partnership with the Mayor of London and the Homes and Communities Agency launched FIRST STEPS, a new website aimed at helping Londoners onto the housing ladder.
L&Q and MHO are the Local HomeBuy agents for London and work in partnership to offer simple access to assist customers in purchasing or renting a home. Since 2006 the housing associations had jointly managed the ‘HousingOptions’ service across London. This new FIRST STEPS brand replaces this and includes a brand new website to make it even easier for potential customers to search for available homes, work out what they can afford and to apply for the homeownership products on offer.
FIRST STEPS is London’s free one-stop service to help people find homes to buy or rent for less. It offers free and impartial advice and will help match customers to the home that’s just right for them.
FIRST STEPS works with over 40 housing providers to offer an exciting range of newly built and resale homes across the capital, and is predicted to handle 30,000 applications from first time buyers in London every year.
On the website customers can search for homes offered for sale by housing associations and house builders in London that are available through low cost home ownership products such as Shared Ownership and Equity Loans, including the newly announced FirstBuy scheme.
HousingOptions already has over 70,000 customers registered on their HomeBuy Agent database. All these applicants will be able to benefit from the new and improved website, with many more potential purchasers in London benefiting from the improved customer journey.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “The capital is a fantastic city to live in, but for those on lower or middle incomes, getting on to the housing ladder can be extremely tough. So it is excellent news that we are closing in on delivering this record target of 50,000 new affordable homes, in spite of some of the worst economic conditions for many years. This, along with a great new website, will go a long way to helping many more Londoners into affordable homes and, if they wish, to take the first step into home ownership.”
Jerome Geoghegan, Group Director of Development, Marketing and Sales at L&Q, said: ““Many Londoners dream of owning their own home and FIRST STEPS can help them to do just that. The demand for different home ownership products to meet different incomes and circumstances is only set to grow. FIRST STEPS, the market leading gateway to all intermediate homeownership products across London, will help us respond to this demand. We are proud to be able to continue to offer Londoners the support they need”
Bernie Conroy, MHO Managing Director, said: "We are delighted to be able to offer Londoners an improved service when looking for a home to buy or rent for less. www.firststepslondon.org offers Londoners a smooth customer journey, a fresh design, improved usability, a shorter application form and an affordability calculator to help our customers to get a clear view of what they can afford when searching for a home.”
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