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Shared Ownership

AN AFFORDABLE WAY TO BUY YOUR OWN HOME

Shared Ownership makes it possible for you to own part, or eventually all, of your home without the need for a large deposit. It’s an affordable scheme designed as a stepping-stone to full ownership if you can’t afford to buy a home on the open market.

With Shared Ownership, you need a much smaller deposit than when you buy on the open market – and it’s already helped thousands of first-time buyers and families onto the property ladder. We currently have 64 homeowners under management in the Shared Ownership scheme.

To purchase one of our part-rent, part-buy homes you will normally need a deposit of between 5% to10% of the value of the share you are purchasing (not the value of the entire property). 

With a Shared Ownership property, you become an owner-occupier. This gives you the long-term security and stability of home ownership at a price that’s still affordable.

How it Works

With an existing Inquilab Shared Ownership property, you start off by buying a share in your new home on a 125-year lease (although this may vary). Your lease is a legal document that proves you own part of your home and sets out conditions such as how often your rent and service charge goes up and by how much as well as the responsibilities of yourself as a Leaseholder and Inquilab as a Freeholder.

The scheme allows you to initially buy as little as 25% or as much as 75% of your home, depending on what you can afford. You will usually pay a mortgage on the part you own and a subsidised rent on the share owned by Inquilab.

[Please note that for new Shared Ownership properties that are built from 2021, you are able to buy as little as 10%]

As your income rises, you can increase the share you own until you eventually own 100% (subject to mortgage conditions) and no longer pay any rent to Inquilab. This process is known as ‘Staircasing’.

You will however be liable for Service Charges if you own a Flat or Maisonette.

Eligibility

To buy a home with us, please register with Inquilab and check that you meet the Shared Ownership requirements. If you already own your home, or own a home under a Shared Ownership scheme, you can still apply for Inquilab Shared Ownership provided you are currently marketing or have already sold your home. You’ll need to be at least 18 years old to be able to obtain a mortgage.

If you are looking to purchase an Inquilab Shared Ownership property, the maximum household income is £90,000 in London and £80,000 outside London. 

Inquilab works with other Housing Associations to provide shared ownership homes.

For further details please contact us here.

Staircasing – Increasing your Shared Ownership share

Staircasing is the term used to increase the share in your shared ownership home.

Do I qualify for staircasing?

Unless your lease says otherwise, you must be a shared ownership leaseholder and have owned a share of at least 25% in your home for 12 months or more.

How to increase the share in your home

First, write to us saying that you would like to increase the share in your home and how much you would like to increase it by. The smallest amount you can increase your share by is 10% of the property’s value, going up in 5% increments to a maximum of 100% ownership.

We will write confirming the date of your application asking you for a valuation report, mortgage approval letter and details of your solicitor.

[Please note that for new Shared Ownership properties that are built from 2021, you are able to increase your share from as little as 1%]

Valuation

You would buy more shares based on the current market value of the home and you therefore need to have your property valued by an independent surveyor.

To determine the value, you need to instruct an independent RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) / FRICS (Fellow of Royal institute of Chartered Surveyors) registered surveyor. You can instruct a surveyor of your choice or we have an experienced panel of surveyors that can all assist you. They provide very competitive rates to Inquilab residents.

If you choose to use your own surveyor, they must meet the following criteria:

  • The valuer needs to be independent and cannot be associated with any estate agents
  • The valuer must not be related to you
  • The valuer must not be employed by any bank/building society
  • The valuer must be registered with the recognised qualification of MRICS or FRICS
  • Inquilab will require a copy of the valuation report which should be valid for a period of three months (and should be valid until completion takes place)
  • The report must include at least three comparable properties used to determine the value
  • The report must also state that INQUILAB HOUSING can use the contents of the valuation report
  • If you have carried out any improvements to the property you should make the surveyor aware when they visit. A separate figure should be provided in the report to confirm the type and value of the improvements

Please note that we always require a copy of the full valuation report and we may ask the surveyor to justify the valuation provided.

The fee for our Inquilab residents from our panel of surveyors is £270.00.

When we have received the valuation fee from yourself, if you decide to go ahead with our surveyors, we will arrange for the valuer to carry out an open market valuation of your home.

When we receive the valuation report, we will write to you with the market value of your home as well as attaching the valuation report. We will also tell you what the new rent and service charge will be after staircasing.

For all Staircasing transactions, there are administration charges for dealing with your application. We make a charge to cover the cost of providing a service to you as well as our professional fees.

If you decide to proceed, we will require you to complete a Staircasing Acceptance Form which contains our fee of £600 to cover our admin fees and professional fees, as well as an acceptance of an abortive fee of £450 if for some reason the staircasing does not go through.

On this Staircasing Acceptance Form you will also be required to fill in the solicitors and lenders details.

Our solicitors will then be provided with the case details to take over the process until completion.

It is anticipated that a Staircasing transaction will be complete within three months. You and your solicitor need to work to this timescale and ensure that you provide all the relevant information required to progress accordingly.

If you wish to discuss any part of the staircasing process, please contact Inquilab directly.