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New property portal for affordable homes in London launched

As part of his continuing commitment to increase the accessibility and supply of low cost housing to buy or rent in the capital, Boris Johnso0n says that the new FIRST STEPS portal, hosted in partnership with Sharetobuy.com, provides a direct link between first time buyers and affordable home ownership schemes.

Aspiring homeowners who are keen to access low cost home ownership can now enter the letters FIRST STEPS into any search engine to reach the new portal. Similar to sites like Zoopla and RightMove, it is the only site to advertise every property available on either a part buy/part rent or reduced market rent basis in the capital.

Once online, interested users can register in three easy steps, cutting out unnecessary form filling, with the site matching these aspiring homeowners directly with providers selling the homes.

The service is part of the Mayor's Housing Covenant to help increase supply, expand products and improve homes for working Londoners. This includes cutting red tape, broadening the range of schemes available to intermediate home buyers, and making it easier and more attractive to buy in the capital.

It builds upon and improves the former FIRST STEPS website and will be delivered at no cost to the public purse. In fact over the next three years the new portal will save London's taxpayers £5 million and allow the Mayor to focus even more funding at delivering much needed affordable homes.

‘We're investing huge sums in affordable housing in the capital and this fantastic new portal shows potential homeowners what they can rent and buy, and where. With homes available right across London there's a variety of buying options to suit every pocket, making it easier for people to move into affordable home ownership,’ said Johnson.

The new portal is hosted by Share to buy, originally a mortgage broker, who use their mortgage knowledge in the portal to list each property with clear and transparent affordability information, e.g. how much deposit is required to buy each listed property. They first launched a property portal focused entirely on shared ownership properties in November 2010.

‘We are passionate about the challenge of making housing affordable and are delighted to have been invited by the Mayor of London to take over the running of his FIRST STEPS property portal,’ said James Cartlidge, founder and Director of Sharetobuy.com.

‘Products like shared ownership can appear complex, and our aim is to break down barriers of understanding by utilising robust affordability information in every property we display on the portal. Thus, at sharetobuy.com/firststeps, you can search not just by area, but also by the deposit and monthly budget you can afford,’ he added.

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