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Affordable housing schemes

Share to buy - Affordable Housing Mortgages

The term ‘affordable housing’ refers to the various Government schemes designed to help people meet their housing needs and aspirations with easily affordable housing for sale. Although affordable Government housing schemes include important rental products, at Share to Buy our focus is on low-cost home ownership schemes such as shared ownership, or rental products that lead to home ownership (e.g. rent to buy). You can search for affordable housing for sale on our property portal, and apply for affordable housing mortgages via our experienced shared ownership mortgage team.  

How does it work?

In order to help first time buyers and others to buy a home, affordable housing schemes tend to involve some form of reduced deposit requirement. For example, the main schemes available for affordable housing in the UK are shared ownership and shared equity, both of which have the potential for the customer to put down a 5% deposit. In addition, other elements help make the process more affordable, such as the fact that the rent you pay on ‘part buy part rent’ homes is subsidised. You can find more on how the specific schemes work: shared ownership (part buy part rent); and shared equity (including Firstbuy).

What properties are available through the affordable housing programme?

You are no longer able to purchase any second hand property you wish to buy because all affordable housing funding for ‘open market’ schemes has ceased, with certain regional exceptions. As such, the schemes are restricted to specific properties: new build homes and second hand shared ownership properties, sold by affordable housing providers such as housing associations. You can search for affordable houses for sale on our property portal, or read about how we can help you with an affordable housing mortgage.

About Share to buy ltd – making housing affordable

Share to buy is dedicated to making affordable housing truly accessible online. At sharetobuy.com you can find affordable homes for sale and information on how to buy them. All the shared ownership properties we display come with a special budget tool to show you the potential monthly cost and required deposit. We also have an in-house mortgage team with huge experience in arranging mortgages for shared ownership including part buy part rent and shared equity, as well as joint mortgages for friends and family members. Finally, we are proud to offer our exclusive open market fee-free joint mortgages from Britannia. For all mortgages we arrange, we donate £10 towards helping homeless people. Register below to be kept up to date on our services, or explore our site using the Tools box beneath.

Latest News

Shared ownership properties for sale

16th May 2012

Are you looking for properties for sale through the shared ownership scheme? These are homes where you part buy part rent, meaning that your initial deposit and potentially your monthly payments are somewhat lower than in a normal house purchase. Look no further! We have shared ownership  houses and flats available on the part buy scheme across England. Search our property portal or register for alerts.

Firstbuy shared equity houses in Greater Manchester

16th March 2012

This is your chance to buy a share in a brand new 2, 3 or even 4 bedroom  house and yet own the whole thing from the outset. These lovely houses in Hyde, Manchester are available on the Firstbuy scheme, a Government sponsored shared equity affordable housing scheme that means you can put down a deposit starting from as little as £5,600. More detail here on the 2 bed house, 3 bed house and 4 bed house.

Subscribe to our free e-newsletter updates. These include important updates on changes to our exclusive mortgages, as well as general news about the shared ownership market.

Affordable housing providers

The main providers of affordable housing apartments and houses are housing associations, though national builders also provide properties classified as ‘affordable’ through shared equity schemes (e.g. Firstbuy). Housing associations receive an affordable housing grant to provide properties through schemes such as shared ownership. This money is ultimately provided through the Government’s main affordable housing fund, i.e. from the Homes and Communities Agency and its various affordable housing programmes. The Coalition Government’s affordable housing plan focuses largely on ‘affordable rent’. However, there is still plenty of affordable housing available across the country available for purchase, through part buy part rent or shared equity schemes. Share to Buy is not a Government agency or housing association but is one of the many affordable housing companies operating in the private sector, as do many other consultants, brokers etc.

Applying for affordable housing

Many customers ask us about joining the ‘affordable housing list’. For low cost home ownership products, this means registering with your regional homebuy agent, a Government funded point of contact for initial registration. First Steps is the agent for affordable housing in London, and there are also agents offering rural affordable housing. Please note that Share to Buy does not cover affordable housing in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland because these are devolved areas (though if you are looking for affordable housing finance, such as a shared ownership mortgage, we can usually assist across the UK). To make an affordable housing application, contact your homebuy agent or click for more local information from Share to Buy including: affordable housing Yorkshire; affordable housing Kent; affordable housing Cornwall; affordable housing Leeds and affordable housing Manchester. Share to Buy aims to provide leading legal information on affordable housing mortgages and available affordable housing for sale.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.

Share to buy Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

FSA register number 306800. You can find more detail on our status in our Initial Disclosure Document [109k] and Terms of Business. For further information, contact us or write to: Share to buy, PO Box 37188, London E4 7WY. Registered in England and Wales no: 04909788.

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