FIRST-TIME buyers are finding it harder to get on the property ladder, but Jan and Helen bought their home with a tiny deposit thanks to a “life-saving” scheme.

Nurses Jan Filiu and Helen Vladez, who are both nurses, moved into their three-bedroom apartment in Kingston, London, in 2022.

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Before moving into their home, the couple were paying £1,600 to rent a two-bedroom flat and were desperate for a place of their own.

Jan, 40, and Helen, 37, had always been pretty savvy with money, but they had up their game to afford to put down a deposit for a home in London.

Getting together a deposit is often the biggest challenge on the journey to owning a home.

Usually, buyers need to come up with 10% of the property value, taking out a mortgage for the rest.

Luckily, Jan and Helen, were able to take advantage of the government’s Help to Buy Scheme.

The government scheme gave budding buyers an equity loan and allowed them to put down a deposit of just 5%.

You can get up to 20% of the value of your property – or 40% if you live in London – under the scheme.

The loan is interest-free for the first five years – but bad news for any budding buyers, the scheme has now closed.

But there are other schemes available that will give you a helping hand up the property ladder.

There are plenty of other schemes that first-time buyers can take advantage of too, like the Help to Build and First Homes Scheme.

The Sun has put together a handy guide to all the first-time buyer schemes available at the moment.

Jan and Helen also bagged £1,500 in free cash towards their deposit from their Help to Buy Isa.

They opened the account in 2019 and saved £6,000 in there over two years.

The Help To Buy ISA was a savings account that allowed first-time buyers to save for a mortgage deposit and then claim a government bonus when they bought their first home.

For every £200 you save, the government pays a £50 bonus towards the purchase price of a property.

This particular government scheme closed to new applicants in November 2019, although if you already have an account, you can continue paying into it until November 2029 and claim the bonus until 2030.

The Help to Buy Isa has been replaced by the Lifetime ISA, which can be opened by anyone aged 18 to 39.

When you open a Lifetime Isa the government will add 25% to your savings, up to a maximum of £1,000 a year.

Now they’re settled into their home, the pair are set to be mortgage-free just under two and half years early and save £16,570 by overpaying £1,000 a month.

Most lenders allow customers on fixed rates to make overpayments of up to 10% of the outstanding mortgage balance in a year.

This is without being hit with an early repayment charge.

Overpaying by even a small amount could reduce the mortgage term and interest.

Meanwhile working overtime during the pandemic and cutting down expenses, helped them to get the £28,000 deposit they needed to secure their £575,000 home.

We sat down with Jan to discuss how the couple went from being savers to homeowners for The Sun’s My First Home series.

Tell me about your house

It’s a three-bedroom duplex in New Malden, Kingston when we saw it we fell in love immediately. 

Our flat has a nice big open plan kitchen and living room and three really good-sized bedrooms.

The whole flat had nice open space so there was lots of room for us to decorate.

It has a lovely ground-floor balcony and a wonderful communal garden.

There were only six three-bedroom units like this in the complex so we’re very lucky to have gotten one.

How did you decide on the location?

We were both keen to find somewhere that was close to where we work. 

Our new home is only 20-minute walk from the hospital, plus there are loads of amenities close by. 

We can easily reach shops like Aldi and Matalan, plus it’s such an iconic location and it’s a really lovely community too.

Fairview were really friendly and helpful, they made the process very easy.

How much was it?

Our apartment was £575,000.

We took out a mortgage of We took out a mortgage of £547,000 for 35 years with a five-year fixed rate of 1.3%,

We could only afford to buy the flat because we applied for a Help to Buy equity loan and it was a life-saver.

We got a 40% equity loan of £220,00 through the Help to Buy Scheme.

You had to buy a new-build in order to be eligible for the loan, but that suited us perfectly.

Our interest rate is low compared to current interest rates, which are around 5% or 6%.

We’re making the most of it and overpaying on our mortgage where we can. 

Our monthly mortgage payment is £920 but we try to pay anywhere between £1,080 to £2,000 a month.

Since 2022, we have overpaid £10,000 on our mortgage.

We are planning to put down a lump sum payment of £20,000 at the end of this year towards our mortgage.

This is set to take around £16,570 worth of interest off of our mortgage and reduce the term by just over two years.

In order to afford this, we have completely given up luxuries like takeaways and holidays.

We have also seen our bills go down quite a bit since moving home which has allowed us to do this.

We are saving around £1,860 a year on energy bills because our property is a new build, which has a higher EPC rating.

EPC stands for the Energy Performance Certificate which is given to all properties in the UK.

An EPC rates how efficient properties are from A (the best) to G (the worst).

Our rating went from E to B when we bought our new home and it’s saving us around £1,860 a year.

All of this extra money we have stashed away to put towards overpaying on our mortgage.

How did you save for it?

We first started saving in 2019, opening a Help to Buy Isa and putting £200 into that every month.

By the time we came to buy, we had saved £6,000 into the account and got a bonus of £1,500 from the government.

When the pandemic struck, we cancelled our holiday we decided to work towards putting money into our savings.

Covid meant there wasn’t much else we could do besides work, so we decided to do as much overtime as we could and see if we could get the money together for a deposit. 

We were doing 14-hour shifts sometimes during very unsociable hours and a lot of it on the front line. 

But it was worth it in the end because it meant we were earning £300 extra a month to put towards our deposit.

We have always been pretty frugal with our spending in general and have never splurged on takeaways, holidays, fancy meals out and designer clothes.

We tried to keep our food bill down by shopping at Aldi and only buying yellow sticker and essential items to help us save.

We also found that planning our meals at the time helped us to keep our grocery bills down.

Being savvy with our shopping and working overtime helped us to save £2,000 a month, with £200 going into our ISA and the rest going into a general savings account.

We were working so much that we saw a small dip in our bills since we weren’t at home as much and using as much energy and electricity.

A lot of people don’t realise all the extra fees that come with buying a home.

We had to pay £18,700 stamp duty and £2,000 legal fees.

That’s an extra £20,000 before we even moved in so first-time buyers should make sure they overestimate their costs and save as much as possible.

How did you afford to furnish it?

When we first moved in there was no furniture, and we didn’t have much to start with as we didn’t buy much from our old flat.  

We budgeted around £5,000 and we made sure to save over our deposit amount to afford it.

We went to places like IKEA and B&Q to buy furniture that would make the place feel homey.

A lot of the furniture we bought on finance from IKEA as they offered a 0% interest rate for five years.

We pretty much had to place kitted out within six months.

Do you have any advice for other first-time buyers?

I don’t think I would have been able to save the way I did without my partner Helen. 

We made the decision and worked as a team, we were always on the same page.

As an individual I am ambitious but I’m not blind to the sacrifices we made along the way, but the time flew and we got there in the end. 

I would advise anyone who wants their own home to break the rental cycle as soon as they can.

Set yourself a fair goal but make changes so you find yourself saving without realising. 

Helen and I are hoping to try for a baby and now we will have somewhere the little one to grow up. 

I think it would the journey would have been a lot harder with a child so we are glad we settled it now. 

One woman has shared how she was able to save £16,000 for her deposit with a “last digit savings” trick.

Another family is saving THOUSANDS on their £385,500 first home with a simple mortgage trick.

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Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

You can also join our new Sun Money Facebook group to share stories and tips and engage with the consumer team and other group members.

SHE may have been snubbed by the Oscars for her role as Barbie, but Margot Robbie doesn’t need to be told she’s the best by a group of greying film buffs.

The world has already crowned her the new Queen of Hollywood.

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Brains, beauty, a wicked sense of humour and a love of pubs have meant she hasn’t put a step wrong since arriving in LA as a fresh-faced Australian ingénue.

In just 18 months, she went from appearing in Neighbours to starring in Martin Scorsese’s blockbuster The Wolf Of Wall Street in 2013, which she auditioned for after a big night out.

Barbie may not have won all the awards that Margot and director Greta Gerwig had hoped for – too pink, too fluffy, too girlie when compared to all the serious male stuff about nuclear weapons – but when it comes to the box office, Barbie won big.

As producer and starring actress, Margot is now some £40m richer.

Her production company is also behind another of the big hits of the year – psychological thriller Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell, who bagged an Oscar in 2021 for another movie she produced with Margot, Promising Young Woman.

While Saltburn may not have been universally loved by the critics, it has proved to be one of the most-talked-about releases of the year.

While some actors take producer credits and do very little, for Margot, 33, the behind-the-scenes work is becoming a huge motivator.

Barbie was a passion project that she pursued for years, and it was her idea to ask Greta Gerwig to write and direct the film and to go up against Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

Chuck Roven, the producer of the rival film asked her to move their release date, but Margot refused, saying that if he was afraid of the competition, he should move his date.

The rivalry created a genuine worldwide film event that finally got people back into the cinemas after Covid drove them away.

Margot is a movie fanatic – she once said 1940s classic The Philadelphia Story was her favourite film.

But she’s not out of touch with the mainstream.

She adores British reality shows, which she got into while living in London in her 20s with her now-husband Tom Ackerley, 33.

In fact, she loves Love Island so much that she once had a Casa-Amor-themed party – and she even personally cast series five contestant Chris Taylor in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo role in the Barbie movie.

Love Island contestants were also among the guests of honour on the Barbie premiere pink carpet.

She’s a feminist, too, quietly using her power to champion women.

“She’s unbelievable, she changed my life,” British writer Emerald said of Margot while on the red carpet for Saltburn last year.

She will lie down on the road to protect her film-makers, especially women

Emerald Fennell

“It is almost not possible for somebody to be the way that she is, which is so talented, so grounded, so remarkable and experienced.

“What Margot does that’s really exceptional is she never, ever uses her great power unless it’s to support somebody.

“She will lie down on the road to protect her film-makers, especially women.

“And she’s changing things. She’s a really amazing person.”

Equally gushing was Barbie’s director Greta, who described Margot as “incredible”, so much so that she says she was thrilled to discover that Margot does actually have a flaw – apparently, she “can’t sing that well”.

Barbie was so big – taking $1.45billion at the box office – that it is easy to forget that, at one point, taking on a film about the iconic but divisive toy was seen as a poisoned chalice.

The idea of making a film about the doll had been tossed around for more than a decade.

Margot secured the rights in 2018 after chasing them for years, but then came the real work.

When she approached Oscar-winning director Greta to take the project on with her husband and Barbie co-writer Noah Baumbach, it was clear that it would either be a huge success or a colossal failure.

“It felt like vertigo starting to write it,” Greta has said. “Like, where do you even begin?

“But when you are thinking: ‘This could be a career-ender,’ then you know you should probably do it.”

Margot and Greta became a team, cajoling executives of Mattel – who hold the Barbie intellectual rights – that the film needed to include the Barbie controversies, as well as being beautiful and funny.

That the Mattel bosses are the de facto baddies of the film shows just how persuasive the pair are (though those bosses laughed all the way to the bank after sales of the toy doll were boosted by 16% after the film’s release).

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An Oscar could have been the cherry on top, but in reality, Margot has already scaled heights she never imagined as the third of four children being brought up by a single mum on Australia’s Gold Coast.

As she said in an interview last month: “There’s no way to feel sad when you know you’re this blessed.”

Pointing to the film’s eight Oscar nods, which include Best Picture, she added: “We set out to do something that would shift culture, affect culture, just make some sort of impact.

“And it’s already done that and some – way more than we ever dreamed it would. I can’t think of a time when a movie’s had this effect on  culture. And it’s amazing to be in the eye of the storm.”

Describing that storm, stylist Jessica Andrews says: “This is a film that went beyond ‘pink fever’, it affected industries and the worlds of fashion and food.

“It takes a special film to really evoke the imagination and make a political point, as this one did.

“It brought women’s issues – the things women talk about but normally only to each other – to the forefront and attracted a strong male following even as it did that.”

That’s quite a leap for a girl whose first sign of business acumen was stealing her brother’s toys and selling them. 

Margot Elise Robbie was born in Dalby, Queensland, 550 miles north of Sydney on July 2, 1990.

Her mother Sarie Kessler is a physiotherapist who raised the family when her father Doug Robbie, a sugarcane entrepreneur, left. 

Her relationship with her father is one thing she rarely talks about – saying only, in 2016, that their contact was limited and: “I’m not like him at all.”

She had a huge drive to succeed from the off.

She first tried drama at school and then started calling agents herself, soon bagging a television debut on Aussie drama series City Homicide, followed by kids’ show The Elephant Princess. 

After that, she turned her attention to getting a job on Neighbours and admits she repeatedly cold-called the soap’s casting office, until one day she was suddenly put through. 

“I don’t know why, I think it was a mistake,” she later recalled.

“They asked: ‘How old are you?’ and I said: ‘I’m 17.’

“She said: ‘Oh, we need a 17-year-old girl right now, so come in next week.’”

Initially, she was meant to feature in just a few episodes, but ended up staying for three years.

Next, of course, was the move to Hollywood.

While she might have looked like one of dozens of beautiful blonde starlets, she was always determined to work harder and better.

Even today, she has an acting coach, plus a movement coach who helps her think about which spirit animal each of her characters inhabit.

She quickly picked up a role in 2011 TV show Pan Am, about ’60s air stewards, and was then invited to audition for a project that was to change her life – playing Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife in 2013 hit The Wolf Of Wall Street. But at first, she wasn’t keen.

“I saw the character as a sex object,” she later said.

“I had no interest in playing a woman like that.”

“The idea of relationships made me want to vomit

Margot Robbie

Her agents patiently explained that roles in Martin Scorsese films alongside DiCaprio didn’t come along that often.

Pan Am – which she was contracted to star in – proved to be another hurdle.

While lawyers argued over whether she could audition, she flew to London to visit friends and celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a few drinks. 

After what she later described as “the best night ever”, she arrived back in her hotel room at 8am to find dozens of messages from her agent – Pan Am had been cancelled and she needed to catch the next flight to New York to audition for Scorsese and Wolf Of Wall Street. 

Having had four hours’ sleep in 48 hours, she didn’t think the audition had got off to a good start.

But then she decided to ad-lib – and slapped Leo in the face. It could have gone really badly.

Instead, in unison, Scorsese and DiCaprio asked her to do it again.

A star was born, as the film went on to huge success and everyone wanted to know who this captivating new actress was.

While that slap may have been the making of her career in front of the camera, it was a stint in London that was to prove just as – if not more – important.

Her next project was 2014’s WW2 epic Suite Française.

She made such good friends with the crew on set that a group of them decided to rent a place together in Clapham, south London.

In the end, they agreed on a location that the lowest-paid of them could afford.

The four-bedroom flat, nicknamed The Manor, was the closest Margot had had to a home since she left her family to work on Neighbours.

There were drunken nights at local sticky-floored nightclub Infernos, summer picnics on Clapham Common and Love Island on television.

She described those days as “the best of my life”.

She was also falling in love.

Among her housemates was husband-to-be Tom, the assistant director on Suite Française.

They were friends before they were lovers.

She was to later tell Vogue: “I was the ultimate single gal.

“The idea of relationships made me want to vomit. And then this crept up on me.

“We were friends for so long.

Margot has an incredible combination of old-school movie-star magic with a modern take on how to appeal to a younger demographic

Leo Pearlman

“I was always in love with him, but I thought: ‘Oh, he would never love me back. Don’t make it weird, Margot. Don’t be stupid and tell him that you like him.’

“And then it happened and I was like: ‘Of course we’re together. This makes so much sense, the way nothing has ever made sense before.’”

It was at this point that Margot – still only 24 – helped set up a production company with Tom (who she married in 2016) and their two flatmates, Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr – called LuckyChap Entertainment.

Their first film was I, Tonya, starring Margot as disgraced US ice skater Tonya Harding.

From the very beginning, the squadron of producers showed they wanted to tell interesting female-led stories in a subversive way.

“While Margot may be first thought of as the eponymous star of this year’s biggest commercial box-office success, her real success has been in building a truly unique, commercial yet creatively independent, female, narrative-driven production company,” says fellow producer Leo Pearlman.

“What may have started out as a vehicle for her own projects has quickly established itself as one of the hottest producers in Hollywood,” he says.

As of 2023, LuckyChap Entertainment can count 16 Academy Award nominations, as well as 11 BAFTA noms.

And if producing two of the biggest films of the last year – Saltburn and Barbie – wasn’t enough, the company’s TV output has been no less impressive, with Hulu’s Dollface proving to be hugely successful.

Leo Pearlman adds: “Margot has an incredible combination of old-school movie-star magic with a modern take on how to appeal to a younger demographic, and right now that seems to be an unstoppable combination.”

Unstoppable indeed.

The production company is currently working on an Ocean’s 11 prequel and has a host of other projects for both film and television up its sleeve.

Margot is enjoying a break from acting and says she is hoping to direct next.

Well, if history is anything to go by, that too will turn to gold.

Her home now – a cool £4million Los Angeles pad – may feel a long way away from her small flatshare in Clapham, but she is a girl who knows not only where she wants to go, but also where she’s come from.

Her home is littered with surfboards, which is a sport she first did in Australia, while by the door are a pair of battered roller skates, a hobby she picked up while working on I, Tonya. 

She seems to really have it all but, perhaps most importantly, she has done it all with her feet firmly planted on the ground. 

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Background: SROs once made up a large portion of New York City’s housing stock.

SROs are typically small apartments with a private room but shared kitchens, bathrooms and other amenities. They are more affordable than conventional apartments, making them attractive to those struggling with homelessness or those on limited incomes.

Although there used to be as many as 100,000 SROs in New York City, according to New York University’s Furman Center, the number began to decline in the mid-20th century, when they became associated with poverty, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.

The city passed laws that prevented the construction of new units and encouraged the conversion of SROs to other types of apartments. In many cases, SROs were combined with other units to form larger homes for wealthier people.

State officials say they don’t know how many still exist. A 2018 paper from the Furman Center estimated it between 30,000 and 40,000 remained.

Why it matters: SROs are seen as one answer to the housing crisis.

Housing experts and politicians increasingly appear to be looking to SROs as a solution to a national housing crisis.

In New York State – and most visibly in New York City – housing costs have risen because not enough housing has been built in recent decades, creating a massive housing shortage. Affordability issues have contributed to record levels of homelessness, a crisis underscored by the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants in the past few years.

SROs could help better tailor the city’s housing stock to the needs of its population: The Furman Center article pointed out that there were about 210,000 “small” units in the city — including SROs and studio apartments — but there were still there. almost 1.2 million single adults tenants who live alone or with roommates.

Facts to keep in mind: SROs alone cannot solve the broader problem.

The SRO program is small. Many of the units are in very poor condition and need extensive renovation; state officials believe the $50 million could help preserve only about 500 units, illustrating how expensive these types of efforts can be. The housing shortage in the state is estimated at hundreds of thousands of homes.

In the city, leaders are trying to change zoning rules to encourage the construction of smaller apartments, part of a broader effort to make way for 100,000 more homes over the next fifteen years. This requires approval from the municipal council, which will take months.

State lawmakers and Governor Kathy Hochul failed last year to reach an agreement on other major initiatives that many housing experts say are necessary to address the crisis, including a new tax incentive program for affordable housing developments, stronger tenant protections and mandates that suburbs build more housing allow. built.

By Monique Friedlander for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 5:55 PM EST, November 11, 2023 | Updated: 6:10 PM EST, November 11, 2023