Help to Buy - Shared Ownership

The help to Buy shared ownership scheme launched by the government is designed for those people that can't afford to buy a property outright and service a mortgage on it. The Help to Buy: Shared Ownership scheme gives you an opportunity to buy a smaller amount of a property anything between 25% and 75% of property value and pay rent on the remaining share.

Your Criteria.

You can use the scheme if -


  • Your household income is less than £80,000 outside London or £90,000 in it.

  • you are a first-time buyer if you have previously owned a property but cannot afford one now or you are already a member of the scheme.


Property Criteria.

Under the shared ownership Scheme you can either buy a new build or a property available through resale from housing associations.

Shared Ownership properties are always leasehold.

Mortgage Criteria.

You’ll need to take out a mortgage to pay for your share of the home’s purchase price, or fund this through your savings, if you are funding via a mortgage you will need to check the mortgage lender accepts the shared ownership scheme.

How does it work?

How does it work?

So you have found the property you want lets say its £100,000 and you decide you can afford 50 % of the property (you can choose between 25-75%), you will need a deposit based on the percentage you will own which can range depending on what the lender asks for, but normally between 5-15% of the value of the part of the property you will own, so lets say the value of your part of the property is £50,000, and you need a 10% deposit £5,000.

So you will pay your mortgage in the normal way but in addition, you will pay a rent which is normally discounted so check, it should be about 20% below market rate.

If you wish to purchase any of the rented side of the property you can do so.

You can sell at any time and will need to contact the housing association to do this if they can not sell the property you can market it via other resources.

Scheme Variations

Service personnel.

Persons serving in the armed forces will receive priority over others, it is possible that local councils have given priority to other employment groups due to local needs.

People with disabilities.

If you have a long-term disability you can apply for HOLD and will endeavor to assist your housing needs for example priority for a ground floor property.

Over 55.

Works in the same way as the standard scheme except but you can only buy up to 75% of your home and you will not need to pay rent on the remaining share.


Applying for a Help to Buy: Shared Ownership scheme

To buy a home through a Help to Buy: Shared Ownership scheme contact the Help to Buy agent in the area you want to live, a list of these will be available via the local council or the government website on help to buy.

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