According to last night’s London evening newspaper, the ‘Evening Standard’ first time buyers in London will have to double the size of their deposits as banks and building societies cut back on lending following the credit crunch. “This means, that based on the price of an average London property- now around £350,000- a first time buyer would have to find a deposit of £35,000 instead of £17,500”.

Now I don’t know where this reporter lives, but there a lots of properties in London which are nowhere near that price. They won’t be in Chelsea , Hampstead, or Knightsbridge admittedly, but there are thousands of properties available in many other parts of London , north and south of the river that are far cheaper than that.

This aside the article goes on to record how some lenders like the Alliance & Leicester, Cheltenham & Gloucester and the Britannia have all reduced their maximum loan to value levels to 90% or less, making it even harder for first time buyers to get on the ladder- especially when they were used to getting 95% and even more with Northern Rock, whose rates now are unfortunately ridiculously high.

There is however, another way that first time buyers can get on the ladder and that is via shared ownership. This is a scheme whereby a first time buyer purchases a property from a housing association. They normally purchase 50% of the property and can increase their equity in the property- known as staircasing- as time goes by.

The problem with the scheme, however, is that it isn’t open to all; there aren’t enough properties to go round and, as you can imagine there are long waiting lists. A far better scheme is called Joint Equity, because you don’t need to find a hefty deposit and it's open to everyone.

The Joint Equity scheme works by matching aspiring owners- usually first time buyers, but not exclusively- with individual property investors. The owner partner and the investor partner purchase the property, which can be of any description and anywhere in the country, together. As with the shared ownership scheme with a housing association with the Joint Equity scheme the owner partner pays the investor a monthly return for the part of the property they do not own themselves.

The benefit for first time buyers , or owner partners, is that they gain the security of their own homes and take responsibility for the property. The benefit for investors is that it’s much better than a buy-to-let as they get a “hands off investment” in the property, good returns and no voids or damages.

Both parties are protected by the Joint Equity Partners Contract which controls the relationship and protects everyone’s interests. When the property is sold, capital gains are shared between owner and investor according to their ownership shares.

So if you are a first time buyer don’t despair. There is hope.

Just take a look at www. jointequity. co.uk