Shared Ownership

Shared Ownership is another way to buy your home. You buy a percentage, pay rent on the rest and, as with properties at The Waterside, pay a monthly service charge. Guinness owns part of the property – but you’re living there, you decorate it and decide when the time is right to sell for you.

Buying a percentage typically means a smaller deposit and a smaller mortgage. A smaller mortgage means smaller repayments but you’ll also need to pay:

• Rent on the share of the property you don’t own
• Monthly service charge
• Ground rent (in select cases)

Despite this, Shared Ownership is still a sooner first step on the ladder for lots of people. For more information about Shared Ownership, visit Guinness Homes.

Am I eligible?

Eligibility to buy a home using Shared Ownership is governed by Homes England. To be eligible for Shared Ownership, you need to be: over the age of 18, a resident in the UK, don’t currently own a property (unless selling), and unable to purchase on the open-market.

Your maximum household annual income should be less than £90,000. If you are not sure if you are eligible, please contact 0300 456 0522 to discuss your situation at The Waterside.

Can I buy with a smaller deposit?

Buying a share means you need a lower mortgage and deposit than purchasing a property outright. This makes it a more cost-effective way to own your own home and ideal for first-time buyers. Shared Ownership usually works out less per month than renting privately, plus you own a part of a property.

What share will I buy?

You’ll buy a share ranging from 25% to 75%, we’ll tell you in the property listing on this website the minimum percentage that can be purchased.

You’ll need to be able to get a mortgage or have savings to cover the price of the share. You should remember that you need to pay your mortgage and rent payments each month as well as the usual household outgoings. To help you, we’ll carry out an affordability check to make sure you won’t be stretching yourself too much financially.

How do I arrange a Shared Ownership mortgage?

We can put you in touch with our panel of mortgage brokers who specialise in Shared Ownership sales so you can be confident that you’ll get expert advice during the buying process.

How do I choose a Shared Ownership solicitor?

You can use a solicitor of your choosing, or we can put you in touch with one of our panel of solicitors to help you purchase your new home.

What properties are available?

We have both brand new and previously owned Shared Ownership homes across England, you can search for properties using the search function here.

What happens in the future?

Once you’ve moved in and you’ve settled, you might decide to buy further shares until you own the property outright or alternatively you might sell your home. We will help you with both these options.

As your finances allow, you can choose to buy a greater share in the property – this is known as ‘staircasing’. Eventually you may be able to buy 100% of the home (by incrementally buying additional shares, sometimes up to 100%), your rent is recalculated and reduced proportionately. Usually, you will buy further shares as and when you can afford to. That could either be at the beginning or after you’ve moved in. It’s important to understand that there are other charges involved in staircasing.

To find out more about staircasing contact 0300 456 0522 (Option 2).

Where can I find more information?

For more information, you can download our guide to buying your Shared Ownership home.

^*Shared Ownership – Terms and conditions apply. This scheme is subject to status and fitting criteria. Minimum and maximum share values will apply and rent is payable on the unsold share.