Vida Homeloans is the first specialist lender to support the Scottish First Home Fund and all of its Help to Buy range of mortgage products will be available to eligible customers.

Mansfield Building Society has made its standard residential and specialist Versatility mortgage range available to first-time buyers in Scotland.

The Scottish government has set aside £150 million for the First Home Fund scheme which allows first-time buyers to obtain a loan from the government of up to £25,000 (or a maximum of 49% of the property purchase price) to put towards the purchase of a residential property in Scotland. The borrower must provide 5% of the property price.

The government loan, which is secured by way of a second charge, is interest free and not repayable until the property is eventually sold.

Unlike the Help to Buy scheme, which only applies to new build homes, the First Home Fund is also available for existing homes and could help up to 6,000 first-time buyers onto the property ladder.

The First Home Fund scheme is in addition to the 32,000 households that have already benefited from existing Scottish government shared equity schemes since 2007.

Paul Lewis, national development manager at Mansfield Building Society, commented: “I have no doubt that the Scotland First Home Fund will prove incredibly popular with first-time buyers, especially as the scheme appears generous and straightforward.

“The scheme provides access to mortgage product pricing that would ordinarily be more expensive for many first-time buyers because they would have to borrow at much higher LTVs.”

Louisa Sedgwick, managing director mortgages at Vida Homeloans, said: “As a lender that puts the customer at the heart of everything we do, we’re proud to support Scotland’s First Home Fund scheme, since it will allow even more people to own a home.

“With affordable rates; innovative, out-of-the-box thinking, and diverse product choices, specialist lenders have a key role to play in supporting the UK’s FTB mortgage market.”