A young Dorset family has been able to move up the ‘property ladder’ and buy their first new-build home, four years ahead of schedule with the support of the Government’s ‘Help to Buy’ (HTB) Scheme. Husband and wife Marcus and Kerrie Courtaux, who have been married for four years, moved into their new C G Fry & Son home at Chickerell at the beginning of 2016 with baby son Theo, then aged just 12 months.

The town of Chickerell is conveniently located near to Weymouth with all its amenities and railway station where trains regularly run to Dorchester and on to London Waterloo. To the west of the Chickerell the scenic B3157 coast road runs through Abbotsbury with its famous Swannery and sub-tropical gardens, to Bridport, Lyme Regis and onwards along the historic Jurassic Coast to Devon.

Marcus and Kerrie’s new three-bedroom house with single garage and parking, is part of the first phase of ‘Grey’s Field’, an NHBC ‘Pride in the Job’ 2015 award-winning development of some 220 homes, built by independent developer C G Fry & Son. The mix of highly individual character homes are set within carefully planned streetscapes, incorporating business space, with prices starting from 278,000.

For purchasers who need financial help to buy their new house, C G Fry & Son offers the HTB Equity Loan Scheme, which assists first-time buyers and those looking to move up the property ladder to purchase a new-build home. The government-backed initiative was set up to help new and existing home owners to purchase a property with as little as a 5% deposit.

Marcus (29) is a Sky Engineer and grew up in Dorchester. He said: “The service from C G Fry was fantastic, particularly on how we needed to register for the HTB scheme. We went through a ‘New Homes’ Mortgage Broker who took everything off our hands – it was a very easy process, and we were advised throughout.”

Kerrie (27), who is currently on a year’s career break from her administration role in children’s services at Dorset County Council, was born in Chickerell. At the age of two, Theo is due to attend the local nursery called ‘Ducklings Pre-school’, the same pre-school as Kerrie attended. “We love Dorset and feel very lucky to live in Chickerell with all its local amenities including a pharmacy, a doctors’ surgery, shop and my old nursery school. ‘Help to Buy’ has helped us to stay living locally in my home town, which means we are able to provide Theo the same great quality of upbringing we enjoyed.”

She adds: “Chesil Beach is nearby and Weymouth Bay, which I think is one of the nicest in the country, is only five minutes away. We also enjoy great views across the rolling Dorset hills from the front, and back of our new home, and the quality of finish and style of the house is brilliant – it’s exactly what we would have chosen. Theo learnt to walk just after we moved in, and now he has lots of space to run around, which feels very safe.”

Before moving to their new Fry’s home, the young couple bought an older property, which Marcus renovated himself and sold at a profit to help them move up the property ladder. He feels HTB has saved them two more houses’ worth of renovation and brought the purchase of their new build home forward, by as much as four years.

He comments: “It was very important for us as a family to stay in the local area, however, we knew we couldn’t afford a new build home, as Dorset’s one of the most expensive counties in the country. We previously lived in two flats and then planned to buy and live in older properties, which I could renovate to help us move towards our goal. Before moving to our new Fry’s home, we owned a small semi-detached house a few hundred yards down the road. I did the property up, doing all the work myself, and sold it at a profit to help push us up the property ladder. We watched the new homes at Grey’s Field going up but thought they were out of our price range until we looked at HTB. Without this financial help we couldn’t have afforded a new home of this size and quality. Now we are very happily living in a lovely spacious, new C G Fry home with a south facing garden, which needs no work doing to it. This means Kerrie and I can relax and enjoy spending more time together with Theo as a family.”

See coverage in the Dorset Echo

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