What is a shared ownership mortgage?
Shared Ownership is a flexible pathway to homeownership that allows you to buy a portion of a property while renting the remainder from a housing association. This significantly reduces the initial upfront costs, making homeownership more accessible. You only need a mortgage and deposit for the share you’re purchasing, typically between 25% and 75% of the property’s value. Deposits are usually 5-10% of the share price, not the full property value. You’ll pay rent to the housing association for the portion you don’t own. This model applies to both newly built homes and existing properties through resale programs. Importantly, you can gradually increase your share over time, eventually owning the property entirely. Shared Ownership properties are always leasehold, and it’s possible to remortgage your share when the initial mortgage term ends.
Frequently Asked Questions
Shared ownership is a lower cost way of buying a property where you make mortgage repayments on the share of the property you own and rent on the share still owned by the housing association. This may or may not be cheaper than renting as regional differences for rent and purchase apply. However, you will own a part of your home, which could go up in value, unlike renting where you never own your own home and will be covering the landlord’s expenses.
Yes, you can buy more shares of the property as you can afford to do so, which is known as staircasing, until you eventually own 100% of your home and will no longer pay rent just the mortgage until that has been repaid.
Your household income is capped at £80,000 a year or less outside of London or £90,000 a year or less in London.
Staircasing is where you buy more shares of the property as you can afford it, eventually owning 100% of the property.
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