Shared Ownership is an affordable home ownership scheme which makes it easier for eligible purchasers to get on the property ladder. Buyers get a mortgage for the share they can afford, and pay rent on the remaining share.
No – this is a common misconception but the ‘shared’ aspect of the scheme simply means you’re sharing ownership of your home with a housing association.
If you decide to buy a Shared Ownership home in Berkhamsted, you’re effectively purchasing a portion of your property. Your initial share will usually be between 25% to 75%, paying a mortgage on the part that you own and a below market value rent on the remaining share.
Yes – Shared Owners can choose to buy additional shares in their property by ‘staircasing’.
When buying a Shared Ownership home, you will initially purchase a minimum percentage somewhere between 25% to 75%. Down the line, if you find that your financial circumstances have changed, buyers will have the option to buy more shares.
If you choose to buy a higher percentage, your mortgage repayments will increase while the rent you pay will decrease. In the majority of cases there aren’t any restrictions and you can buy 100% of your home – in this instance, you would become the outright owner.
As a home-buying product aimed at helping those who can’t afford to purchase a property on the open market, there are certain requirements that buyers will need to meet to be considered eligible for Shared Ownership.
For example, there are caps on household income which means that you must earn less than £80,000 to be eligible for the scheme – or less than £90,000 if you would like to buy a home in London. The criteria also states that buyers must be at least 18 years of age and do not own another property either in the UK or abroad.
Shared Ownership properties enable you to put down a smaller deposit compared to those required on the open market – buyers will usually need to put down 5% to 10% of the share that they’re buying, rather than the full market value of the home.
On a monthly basis, buyers will be required to pay their mortgage, a subsidised rent and service charge on their home, however, these repayments often work out cheaper than or equal to renting privately in the same area. Other costs to consider when buying a home include solicitor and mortgage broker fees – you can find out more about these costs on Share to Buy.
Share to Buy lists thousands of Shared Ownership homes all across Berkhamsted and beyond – including new build properties and those available through resale.
Shared Ownership is available on a variety of homes including cosy studios, stylish apartments and traditional family homes. Check out our property search tool to start looking for your new home today!
The major providers of Shared Ownership, Help to Buy and other affordable ways to buy a home in Berkhamsted and nationwide have their homes listed on Share to Buy.
Share to Buy is the leading online portal for Shared Ownership properties. Established in 2004 as the UK’s first specialist online mortgage broker for affordable home ownership products, the site has since developed into a one stop shop for first time buyers, offering the country’s largest listing of Shared Ownership homes from many of the UK’s biggest housing providers.
Share to Buy is the nation’s biggest and best established affordable home ownership property portal, making it the ideal website for first time buyers looking to take that first step onto the property ladder.
Using our property search tool, you can search for homes that suit your needs via filters such as location, number of bedrooms, monthly outgoings and deposit amount. You can also set up alert preferences so you’ll be notified when new properties that meet your search are announced by email.
Acting as a one stop shop for first time buyers, Share to Buy also offers handy FAQs and guides, interactive mortgage tools, mortgage broker and conveyancing panels, and live events to help potential purchasers on their home-buying journey.
If you are a housing association or developer selling properties through Shared Ownership, Help to Buy and other affordable home ownership schemes, we can list your new build and resale homes on the Share to Buy property portal.
As well as working alongside Registered Providers, we also partner with private sellers who are looking to sell their current Shared Ownership home.
Find out more about advertising your Shared Ownership property on Share to Buy.
“If you are considering Shared Ownership, I would 100% recommend using Share to Buy to learn more about the scheme and assess your options. Shared Ownership is an excellent stepping stone into the property market – it’s worked so well for me. It’s given me a freedom and flexibility I wouldn’t have had if I bought on the open market!"
“The deposit for buying a Shared Ownership property was much lower than I was expecting - there’s definitely no way that I would have been able to buy without the Shared Ownership scheme. With staircasing, I could buy more shares in the property, eventually amounting to 100%. At that point the flat would fully be mine and I wouldn’t have to pay any rent!”
“The landlord at our old place kept threatening to sell up and leave us in the lurch, which produced a lot of anxiety. Now we’ve got a stake in something, we aren’t at the mercy of someone else - we wouldn’t have that freedom if we stuck in renting or bought somewhere outright. Shared Ownership has been a perfect solution.”
If you’re a first time buyer, then it can often feel as though the prospect of home ownership is out of reach. With Shared Ownership homes in Berkhamsted though, that doesn’t have to be the case. They are a great option for making that vital first step onto the property ladder more accessible than ever. Help to Buy homes in Berkhamsted also offer potential buyers an affordable route into their dream location.
To stay up to date with the latest Shared Ownership and Help to Buy properties in Berkhamsted, all you need to do is sign up to Share to Buy. From there, register to receive alerts and we’ll send you email notifications when relevant properties are added to the market. It couldn’t be simpler!
There’s something truly awe-inspiring about the ability of Berkhamsted to balance such captivating sights and experiences with a feeling of warmth and homeliness. Turn your head and there’s a good chance it’ll appear as though you’ve been dropped into an 18th-century watercolour of green and pleasant lands. It’s a place where you can pop to the local shops just as easily as get lost in another world: one both mystical and familiar.
It is really no surprise then that a large part of Berkhamsted is classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, as we can’t really think of anywhere that lives up to that moniker more consistently than here. However, don’t go thinking that this is an area which is all style without substance. Berkhamsted boasts great history, depth and character.
It has a culture and an individuality which was built on the wooden frames of the turn of the first millennium and has evolved into a uniquely modern town. That’s because while Berkhamsted retains so many of the charms which make it, as its credentials suggest, so outstanding – including the architecture, the historical sites and the incredible natural beauty – it’s also an area wise enough to move with the times. Indeed, so many of the attractions which are now landmarks are so as a result of the constantly shifting sands of Berkhamsted’s economy and process of modernisation.
This means that you won’t be stuck in the past when it comes to things like opportunities in education and employment, alongside transport and all the other essentials which bring a town together. That includes plenty of great pubs, restaurants and stores that keep everything ticking along in the local community.
Speaking of transport and opportunities, these two things really come together as Berkhamsted is a well-known commuter town to the capital. Therefore, the world really is your oyster in terms of employment prospects. In fact, over half a million train journeys are made between Berkhamsted and London every year.
All this is just scratching the surface of the depth of what Berkhamsted has to offer – like a quick glide over the majestic English countryside. It’s a town you have to experience yourself to truly appreciate to the full.
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