Halifax has launched buyingyourfirsthome.co.uk, a new website which gives first time buyers a helping hand getting onto the housing ladder.

Buyingyourfirsthome.co.uk provides first time buyers with a fun, straightforward, comprehensive and impartial guide through the process of searching for, buying and moving into their first home. The website will remain independent of the main Halifax retail banking website.

Using a virtual high street as the setting for the website, first time buyers can navigate their way, step by step, through the home-buying process stopping en-route for guidance at a range of virtual product and service providers key to the homemoving process. These include a mortgage provider, solicitor’s office, surveyor’s office, estate agency branch and removal company.

Key Features in the website include:

? Affordability Calculator: first time buyers can use the online calculator to find out how much they can afford to borrow.

? Interactive To Do List: helping first time buyers to track their progress as they buy their first home
? Viewing Checklist: a practical, printable form to use as a guide when viewing properties.

? Moving Checklist: a step-by-step guide to help first time buyers’ house move as smooth as possible.

? Jargon Buster: a helpful A to Z of the key words and phrases in the homebuying process and what they all mean.

Mark Heaton, Head of Mortgages, at Halifax said: “First time buyers want more than just a good mortgage deal to help them onto the housing ladder. Our experience shows they need a combination of advice, expert knowledge and mortgage deals which will help them to reduce the costs of buying their first home.”