About Shared Ownership

Shared ownership is the affordable way to buy a new home. You can buy a share of a home that you can afford, with an initial share between 10 – 75%, you will then pay rent on the share that you don’t own. In the future, if your circumstances change or if you’re in the position to do so, you can buy more shares or purchase the property in full. Because you’re buying a share in a property, rather than buying it outright, this means that you’ll need a smaller deposit and mortgage. This makes shared ownership a really affordable route into home ownership. 

Buying a larger share is called ‘staircasing’ and as you buy more shares, you pay less rent. In some instances, you will have to live in your home for a year before you can buy more shares and in rural areas, stair-casing can sometimes be restricted. You will have the option to buy 1% extra share each year for up to 15 years after your initial purchase. The 1% price you can purchase is based on the initial value, with an increase linked to the Retail Price Index (RPI) – there are no legal fees attached to the 1% purchase price. 

 You can read our guide to staircasing here. 

You will need to take out a mortgage to pay for your share of the home’s purchase price, or fund this through your savings. Shared Ownership Homes are always leasehold, however after the final staircasing, the freehold will be transferred to you. 

Shared Owners have the benefit of a 10 year ‘initial repair period’ during which you will be able to claim costs of up to £500 a year from your landlord to help with essential repairs. During this period the landlord is also responsible for the cost of essential repairs to the external fabric of the building and structural internal repairs. These are limited to repairs not covered by the building warranty, defects period or any other guarantees. The £500 allowance can also be used to claim back excess paid when claiming through the building warranty. For more information on repairs please see A guide to repairs 

What does leasehold mean?  

As a Shared Owner you buy a lease (becoming a leaseholder) that gives you the right to occupy and own a percentage of a property for a given period of time (typically 990 years). 

You have the right to occupy the property provided that the agreed rent and service charges are paid as set out in the terms of the lease and all other terms specified in the lease are adhered to. 

When you buy your ‘share’ of a Shared Ownership property you are buying a lease based on that percentage of the market value of the property. You are not buying a share of the freehold. You would only acquire the freehold interest in the property if you could and chose to ‘staircase’ to 100% ownership. There are some properties that cannot be staircased up to 100% and owned outright and this will be stipulated in the Lease. 

A leaseholder in a Shared Ownership property will also pay rent to the Association based on the percentage of the market value of the property not covered by the lease. For example, if you buy a lease based on 50% of the market value, you will pay rent based on the other 50% that remains in the Associations ownership. 

If you ‘staircase’ and buy 100% share of a house the freehold will be transferred on completion, provided the Association owns the freehold. The Association would then have no further legal interest in the property. You will no longer need to pay rent to us although we may levy a service charge for services we provide to external communal areas that benefit property, such as grounds maintenance of the estate. You would also need to source and pay for your own building’s insurance. 

Leases can be bought and sold on the open market. If you sell your ‘share’ of the property you are selling your interest in the lease. A purchaser may buy your ‘share’ and the Associations ‘share’ at the same time. This is called back to back staircasing.