The Cambridge Building Society has selected a new round of winners as part of its rent-return initiative, ‘Rent to Home’.
The scheme was launched by The Cambridge Building Society in 2019, and helps first-time buyers build up a deposit to buy a property, which renting might otherwise prevent them from saving for.
Winners get up to 70% of their rent back at the end of their tenancy to use as a deposit to buy their first home.
Earlier this year, the mutual expanded ‘Rent to Home’ by investing in two homes in Longstanton and Northstowe, increasing the community scheme to provide five homes for local people.
Joint applicants Paul Barnes, 38 and James Hope, 35 were the new tenants of the mutual’s new Longstanton property.
Hope said: “I had given up on the idea of owning my own home until I saw how The Cambridge is making a difference for first time buyers in its yearly newsletter.
“I can’t believe that schemes like this aren’t widely available up and down the country.
“It’s a massive opportunity for people like us, that might otherwise be struggling due to the cost of living, inflation, and fierce rental market, to get a foot on the housing ladder.”
Barnes added: “We applied online, it was very straightforward, and I was surprised at how easy it was.”
“You never think you’ll be the lucky one that gets selected, it’s like winning the lottery in many ways.”
Tenants were also drawn for the scheme’s second new property, located in Northstowe.
Joint applicants Sophie Rhead, 20 and Jamie Bladen, 23 were randomly selected as the winners of the Northstowe property.
Rhead said: “We’ve been looking at properties for a while now and saving as much as we can but it’s just really hard to find something suitable in the Cambridge area.
“This is life changing for us, I don’t think we can put into words how grateful we are.”
Bladen added: “Getting the call on my birthday was an incredible surprise and I couldn’t have asked for a better present, thank you so much.”
Each applicant was given a number and their corresponding ball was entered into the ballot box and drawn by chief commercial officer Carole Charter in late June.
The successful applicants were told the news in a video call by chief executive Peter Burrows, and underwent credit checking and affordability verification before signing their contracts to rent the properties.
The applicants moved into their respective properties at the end of July.
