The movie It’s A Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart as a kind but hapless mortgage provider on Christmas Eve, is an all-time favorite. Now the Cambridge Building Society is trying to harness that spirit, which has made the tearjerker one of the most beloved seasonal films since it was first screened in 1946.
Young couple Sophie Rhead and Jamie Bladen hope their dream of living in a home of their own with their four-month-old daughter Darcie has come closer after their lives were changed thanks to an innovative Cambridge scheme.
Like millions of other young couples, they were struggling to save enough for a deposit to buy a house.
Now, after being selected for the scheme, they are renting a property in Cambridge. However, unlike a conventional landlord, the building society will return a large portion of the rent to help them access housing.
Thanks to this, the couple is now thinking about houses with three or four bedrooms, instead of small apartments, and they hope to have a mortgage by next Christmas. “It sounds cliché, but it has changed our lives,” says Sophie, 22.
The scheme, called Rent To Home, was created in 2019 and currently covers just seven properties in Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk. However, the mutual is looking to expand this to 25 properties over the next three years and says it will be happy to partner with the government or other lenders to help create similar schemes.
Its goal is to help first-time buyers who can afford to rent, but don’t have access to the Bank of Mom and Dad for a down payment on a home loan. Applicants are selected by voting, after which they move into a newly renovated property for between one and three years.
Once they are ready to buy a home, they will be refunded 70 per cent of the rent they have paid to help cover the deposit, as long as they take out a mortgage with Cambridge.
Potential buyers must meet a number of criteria including connections to the area, such as living or working locally. They must also have a “modest income.”
Couples who apply must earn between £36,000 and £80,000 a year between them. The upper annual income limit for single applicants is £60,000.
The building society created the scheme to address the issue of affordability in an area with some of the highest property prices in the country.
“As far as we know, it’s unique,” says Carole Charter, Cambridge’s commercial director. The plan usually attracts 20 applicants for each position. So far he has rented homes to 12 people. Nine are still renting and three have bought their own home.
“It’s part of our contribution to the community in which we all live and work,” Charter says. “It’s part of our purpose, part of what we do.” There was a big problem launching the plan.
Insurance: Sophie Rhead and Jamie Bladen with Darcie
‘People thought it was too good to be true. They were looking for the catch. We took a lot of time to explain to them that there was no catch,” Charter says.
‘There is nothing better than seeing and hearing tenants. They have told us that this plan has changed their lives.’
She says the lender would be “more than happy” to work with other lenders or the Government to create similar schemes.
Sophie and Jamie, 24, were each living with their parents before finding out about the plan.
“We wanted our own space,” said Sophie, a manager at a commercial real estate company who is on maternity leave, adding that “the prices in Cambridge are crazy.” They were amazed to have been selected for the plan.
“We never win anything, we’re not those people,” says Jamie, who works for British Gas. Sophie says: “It was kind of a cinematic moment.”
Within a month they had moved into their rented house in Northstowe, a town eight miles from Cambridge. The couple hopes that by next Christmas they will be at the stage of submitting an offer for a new property.
Marriage is “definitely on the horizon.” For now they are enjoying their first Christmas holidays as a family. Sophie says: ‘Putting up the Christmas tree for the three of us was very special.
“We’ve always wanted to have a small family with a dog and a nice little garden, and now it seems like that’s more within our reach.”