When school friends Georgia Canagon (28) and Laura Middleton (29) thought about buying their first home in London, combining their resources made perfect sense. Pooling together for horse mad Georgia meant making the difficult decision to sell her horse to help raise her part of the 5% deposit that was required for the friends to take advantage of Help to Buy London to secure their first property at Anthology’s Deptford Foundry development.
Georgia said: “I knew that I’d have to make a compromise to afford the deposit. A lot of my money went on horses and so to cut my costs and put as much towards the deposit as possible I decided to sell my horse, trailer and saddle. It was a very difficult decision, but it was the right one to make for my future.
“I’ve been friends with Laura since secondary school and we’ve lived together briefly before so the idea of being homeowners together made sense. Laura has been renting so she was keen to get on the property ladder too and we worked out that buying jointly with the use of Help to Buy would make it so much more affordable, allowing us to take the plunge.”
Better still, Georgia works in the house building industry as Operations Manager for London developer Anthology, so had plenty of experience to fall back on:
“I loved Deptford Foundry as soon as I saw it at the early build stage. It is one of the developments in my operations area. The views in the tower, where Laura and I have bought, are amazing and coming home to that every day will be incredible. Plus, the location is ideal, it’ll take me about six minutes to commute to work, a much more appealing commute than my current one from Sussex, where I have been living with my parents.
“Working for Anthology also meant I had done a lot of market research about the area as part of my job so knew it was a great part of London to be in and saw first-hand how good the build quality and specification is, which for me is an important factor
Georgia and Laura moved into their new two-bedroom home at the end of March, just before lockdown. Complete with a balcony, they can’t wait to start making the most of their Zone Two dream. Georgia continues: “I didn’t look at other developments as I had my heart set on Deptford Foundry, but I would encourage first time buyers to have a look around and ask plenty of questions before taking the plunge. I am very lucky working in the industry, so I have the background knowledge and experience. Laura is a trainee solicitor so that was pretty useful too!”
Neither Georgia nor Laura could believe how affordable using Help to Buy made their purchase, even in London. The friends needed a 5% deposit, which they split between them.The government then lends up to 40% of the value of the property through an equity loan which leaves up to 55% for the purchaser to secure through a mortgage.
“We really couldn’t believe how affordable it was and Laura is thrilled to have halved the amount she was paying in rent as the mortgage payments will be so much less. We were both in the same situation and needing somewhere affordable to buy that we both loved and together we were able to afford the deposit which was the key.
“We’re really looking forward to moving in. There’s such a strong sense of community at Deptford Foundry and the demographic of the other owners is very similar to us so hopefully we’ll feel at home in no time at all. There’s a really good feeling about the place and I think Laura and I are going to be very happy there.”
With a selection of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom homes available to move in to now at Deptford Foundry, 2020 may also be the year to start your next chapter in a new home. Contact our Anthologists on 020 7526 9229 or email deptfordfoundry@anthology.london to find out more. Prices at Deptford Foundry start at £410,000 for a one-bedroom home.