Shared Ownership Houses
If you are looking for new home developments that are available for purchase with the Shared Ownership scheme, use the search bar above to find homes in the area you want to live.
What is Shared Ownership?
Shared Ownership is an incentive scheme that allows you to buy a share of a new house (usually between 25% and 75% of the home’s value) and pay rent on the remaining part. Shared Ownership is also known as a part-buy, part-rent scheme. You can use this scheme to help you get on the property ladder, or to buy a bigger home than you could not afford on the open market.
Shared Ownership is perfect for first time buyers or those who currently do not own a home. This scheme is available to those in a household with a combined income of less than £80,000 a year, or £90,000 in London and if this is your first home or if you have owned a home before but can no longer afford to buy a property. You can buy more shares in your home over time in a process called Staircasing, see more on this below.
You will likely purchase your Shared Ownership property via a Housing Association. Your home will be a new build house or a re-sale of an existing Shared Ownership property, of which you’ll need to purchase the same percentage of shares as the existing owner, or more.
Am I eligible to buy a Shared Ownership home?
The scheme is available if you are part of a household earning up to £80,000 a year (or up to £90,000 if you live in London), and if this is your first home, or you used to be a homeowner but you can no longer afford to buy a property. You will also need to have no outstanding credit issues, so make sure you get your finances in order before you apply.
How much of the home will I own?
If you are eligible under the scheme, you can purchase between 25% and 75% of the value of the property. You will need a deposit and a mortgage to pay for the share of the house that you want to buy. The remaining share is owned by a Housing Association, and you will pay rent comprising up to 3% of this amount. You can buy additional shares in the property over time until you own it outright - known as staircasing - but you can only increase your share in increments of 10%.
Although the Housing Association may have shares of up to 75% in your home, you will become the owner of the lease. As the leaseholder, you will be responsible for repairs inside the property and the Housing Association will take care of the outside. To cover any costs that might be necessary for outside work, you will need to pay a service charge, which will be charged on a monthly basis. It is a good idea to find out how much the service charge might be and factor that into your monthly outgoings, before you sign on the dotted line.
Staircasing
You can buy additional shares of your home in increments of 10%, until you own the majority or all of your home. This process is called Staircasing and allows you to own more of your home as you earn more money or can afford a bigger mortgage. Each time you wish to purchase more shares, these will be based on the value of the home at the time of buying the shares, and not the value of your home when you first bought it. You will need to pay for a professional valuation of your property to determine the value of the shares before you can buy them.
How do I go about buying a home through Shared Ownership?
To buy a home through a Shared Ownership scheme contact a Help to Buy agent in the area you want to live, or by enquiring directly to a Housing Association or developer via newhomesforsale.co.uk - simply enquire about a Shared Ownership home to get started, using the search bar above.
You can also find out more about Shared Ownership on the Government's Help to Buy website.
Things to consider before buying a Shared Ownership home
There are other factors which may impact your decision on whether Shared Ownership is right for you:
- Your circumstances may be better suited to buying a home with the Help to Buy scheme, so do your research and talk to a Help to Buy agent before you make a decision.
- You will still need a deposit for the mortgage portion of your home, usually at least 10% of the value of the mortgage.
- All usual moving fees apply including surveys, stamp duty and legal costs.
- If you’re aged 55 or over, you may be eligible for Older People’s Shared Ownership but bear in mind, you will only be able to own up to 75% of your home.
- If you have a long term disability, you may be eligible for Home Ownership for people with Long Term Disabilities scheme, rather than standard Shared Ownership.
- If you are a key worker, then a percentage of properties through Housing Associations will be allocated to those who work for the NHS, police, local authorities, Ministry of Defence and many more. Ask the Housing Association for more information.
Housing Associations
The following Housing Associations and developers have Shared Ownership properties available throughout the UK which you can enquire via this website:
