First-time buyers Daniel Gamble and Leah Rattray are celebrating after purchasing a three-bedroom house at Medway’s Liberty Park with the help of the government-backed NewBuy scheme.

The new 95% mortgage only requires 5% deposit and is available to first-time buyers and existing homeowners.

Construction manager Daniel, 25, said: “We had been renting together for several months but, after paying rent and bills, we were finding it impossible to put aside very much money at all each month.

“To save as much money as possible, we each moved back with our parents for a few months. Even with our reduced monthly outgoings, if it hadn’t been for NewBuy, we wouldn’t have been able to get on to the property ladder for another few years at least.

“To save a 20% or 25% deposit – which is what most lenders are asking for – would have been beyond us for a very long time.

“NewBuy enabled to us to properly start our lives together. We had been vaguely aware about 95% mortgages but it wasn’t until we visited Liberty Park and spoke to the sales team that we realised, not only were we eligible, but we could afford to buy a three-bedroom house, which is fantastic for our first home.

“Crest Nicholson put us in touch with independent financial advisors who took us through our options and made everything really clear. We moved into our house in the middle of February, just eight weeks after first seeing it."

Leah, 23, who works in customer service, added: “Living here is even better than we thought it would be. We both work long hours so buying a brand new home has meant in the evenings and on weekends, we can just enjoy being together. We haven’t had to do any renovation or repair work; we haven’t had to lift a paintbrush!

“We had looked at other new developments but they didn’t compare to Liberty Park. The houses were extremely small – not just the room sizes but there was no storage space. The space in our house at Liberty Park is great and the build quality is really high; we’ve certainly got really good value for money here.