Social Homebuy scheme

Our Social Homebuy (shared ownership) scheme is a more affordable alternative to Right to Buy. The scheme offers qualifying tenants the opportunity to buy a share in their home at a discounted price. As with most shared ownership schemes, a rental amount is paid on the remaining share.

You can initially buy a share of either 25%, 50% or 75% based on how much we value your home at the current property market value. Over time you can buy more shares until you gain 100% ownership. To ensure applicants will not be placed in financial burden, a comprehensive affordability assessment is conducted with all applications.

Under the Right to Buy scheme, you'll receive a discount in proportion to the discount you’re eligible for.

For example:

Benefits

The advantages of purchasing on shared ownership terms under Social Homebuy (rather than buying outright), include:

• your combined monthly rent and mortgage repayments are likely to be less than if you had bought the property outright
• most of your annual service charges are apportioned to the share you purchase
• you only pay a contribution for major works to your block (in proportion to the share you own)
• as your financial circumstances change, you can apply to buy a larger share (making an investment in your home and reducing rent)
• we’ll carry out a detailed means test to check your level of affordability - this will help you make an informed decision on what share to buy (we won’t allow you to buy a larger share than you can afford)
• it’s an excellent way of entering into home ownership and getting a foot on the property ladder (without having to move away from the current area you live / work in)

You can find more information here:

• Staircasing - FAQs ^{(PDF, 635kb)}
• Shared Ownership Scheme FAQs ^{(PDF, 638kb)}

Page last updated: 05 April 2023