Appeal of Shared Ownership Now Attracting First Time Buyers Across the UK

With mortgage rates on the rise, the dream of home ownership seems to be slipping even further away for many people. Yet, as one door closes another is beginning to swing further open, with the shared ownership model offering an alternative cost-effective route to get onto the property ladder.

London

In the capital, where shared ownership has been an established route to owning a home for some time, as it can offer a cheaper and more permanent option to rental properties.

UK cities and towns

While shared ownership conversations are now a staple of the London housing market given the cost of property, similar conversations are going on up and down the UK as prospective buyers are faced with far greater sums to secure their new home.

Shared ownership can be a route to alleviate some of these challenges. For many young homeowners, it can be one of the only ways to afford that first home.
In Newcastle, for example, a 25% share on a two-bedroom shared ownership property is available for as little as £35,000. In Leeds it's £37,500, while in Liverpool it's £40,000. This requires significantly less deposit to be saved than many similar outright purchase homes in the same neighbouring streets.

Emily and Tyler are a couple who bought a shared ownership property in Newcastle. For them, shared ownership made their dream of moving into their own home a reality.

Having previously been renting a property in nearby Gateshead and keen to move back into Newcastle, they explained: "There's no way we could go for a 100% of a house. It would have taken us years and there would have been no point at all.
Shared ownership is also making an impact in less urban areas, as the realisation that buying a house outright is a step too far for a significant number of people.
This type of growing interest shows that the mindset towards shared ownership is changing in line with growing costs and a new generation of prospective homebuyers.

Part-owning a home through shared ownership already brings down the high barrier to entry costs involved in the current housing market, with companies introducing further schemes to open up the dream of home ownership to more prospective buyers.

Christopher Bond, Head of Sales at Persona Homes, said: "Everyone knows it's been a real challenge for some time for people to get on to the property ladder. The past year or so - cost of living crisis, mortgage rate increases etc - has made that challenge insurmountable for many.

"It's not surprising, therefore, to see the take up of shared ownership growing across the UK. Shared ownership offers a decent sized step on that ladder, with those steps increasing the more of that property you own as time goes by. A process called staircasing.

"One of the issues in the past was that shared ownership wasn't always fully explained. That has changed and buyers are aware of the way the process works in comparison to outright sale. That could be another reason for the higher take up we see today."

With increasing numbers of shared ownership developments being delivered around the country and new grant funding through the Government's £11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021-26 ensures a steady supply of new properties to the market, more and more buyers will be able to move out of their rented or parents' homes into a place they can call home.