Shared Ownership is a service offered in England and Wales to help people get onto the housing ladder.
What’s Shared Ownership?
Shared Ownership is when a resident owns part of their home and has a mortgage for this, and then pays rent on the part that they don’t own. The resident can then increase their percentage owned, resulting in reduced rent, which is known as staircasing.
You can find more useful information on staircasing on our web page.
Where it all started
The history of Shared Ownership started when a Birmingham couple, John and Denise Elliott, became the first couple to buy a house using this scheme. They purchased a three bedroom house on the former Kings Norton golf course in Birmingham.
The couple thought shared ownership was, “a marvellous scheme to help couples get started.”
In the 1980’s ‘Do It Yourself Shared Ownership’ was a popular choice for many, which allowed a resident to select their own home on a Shared Ownership model. Over time, DIY Shared Ownership have diminished with the product now being built on new housing developments along with homes for outright sale and those reserved purely for rental.
How it’s going
Shared Ownership has continued to be available for nearly 50 years, which shows how successful it’s been. Governments have looked at other ideas to encourage and help people onto the housing market, but this hasn’t been too successful.
Helping you understand Shared Ownership
To help residents understand what Shared Ownership is and what your rent payments go towards, we’ve included lots of helpful information on our web page.
If you have any further queries, get in touch with our Housing Advice Team on 0345 60 20 540, who’ll be happy to help.
