Affordable Home Ownership Guide

What is affordable home ownership?

It's a type of housing perfect for people who'd like to own their home, but cannot afford to buy a property on the open market.

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Affordable Home Ownership Schemes

There are a number of schemes available to help you buy a property:

Shared Ownership

This helps you to buy your own new build property by purchasing an affordable share to you; the remaining share would usually be owned by a Registered Provider. You can buy a share using savings, a mortgage or both and then pay a reduced rent on the remaining share.

You can initially buy between 25% and 75% of the property, but you can buy more shares to eventually own 100% of the property.

All Shared Ownership properties available in South Ribble are advertised through Help to Buy North West.

Shared Ownership Resales

Shared Ownership Resales are homes that were originally purchased by a first-time buyer on a shared ownership basis and are being sold on by the owner. You will be able to buy the same share or a larger share than the original owner.

Older People's Shared Ownership

This is a Shared Ownership scheme available to people over the age of 55 with the opportunity to purchase up to 75% of a property. Once the 75% share has been reached, there will be no rent payable on the remaining share.

Discounted Homes (Discounted Open Market Value)

This allows you to buy a new build property but at a discounted price. The discount is usually between 20% and 40% below the open market value and remains with the property through all subsequent sales. If the owner decides to sell the property, they would benefit from any increase to property price but would need to sell the property with the discount still in place.

Discounted homes are sold and advertised directly through the developer.

Starter Homes

Starter Homes are similar to discounted homes, they are available to first-time buyers looking to purchase a new build property, usually with a minimum of 20% discount.

Starter Homes are not currently available in South Ribble, however they are due to be developed in the future as the scheme is rolled out.

You can find out more and register your interest for Starter Homes.

Rent to Buy

This scheme enables you to rent a new build property for up to 5 years at a reduced rent, usually 20% lower than open market rent. Paying a reduced rent will allow you to save towards a deposit to then buy part of the property at the end of the fixed term on a shared ownership basis.

Help to Buy Schemes

As well as affordable home ownership, the government has created Help to Buy schemes including Help to Buy: Equity Loan and Help to Buy: ISA. These products do not fall under affordable home ownership but are available to those wishing to purchase a home.