What is Shared Ownership?
Shared Ownership is a scheme set up by housing associations. You can buy part of a home and a housing association owns the rest. You’ll pay rent to the housing association for the share it owns.
If you’re finding it hard to save a deposit, or you can’t afford to buy in the area you want to live, Shared Ownership could help. It’s available if you’re a first time buyer or if you want to move home.
If you can afford to put down a larger deposit, you might get a lower interest rate and have more mortgage deals to choose from. This could also lower your risk of negative equity.
Negative equity is when the value of your share in your home is less than the amount you owe on your mortgage.
If you want to know more about being at risk of negative equity, visit our Negative equity page.
How does Shared Ownership work?
If you buy a home through Shared Ownership, the minimum share you can buy usually starts from 25% of the property value. The share you own is made up of your deposit and mortgage. The minimum deposit we accept is 10% of the share you’re buying.
Let’s take a home that costs £200,000, for example. You’d like to buy a 50% share and put down a 10% deposit for it. The housing association will own the other 50%.
• Your share – 50% of the £200,000 purchase price = £100,000
• Your deposit – 10% of your £100,000 share = £10,000
• Your mortgage – your £100,000 share minus your £10,000 deposit = £90,000
• The housing association’s share – 50% of the £200,000 purchase price = £100,000.
You’ll pay rent to a housing association for the share you don’t own.
This is reviewed each year so your rent could go up.
For this example, let's say the housing association charges rent at 3% of the 50% share it owns.
The rent would be £250 each month. That's 3% of £100,000 divided by 12.
There might be other costs you need to pay if your home is a leasehold, such as ground rent and a service charge.
We don't offer additional loans for home improvements until 100% of the property is owned.
Can I apply for a Shared Ownership mortgage?
You could buy your Shared Ownership home through Santander if:
- your household income is £80,000 a year or less (£90,000 if you live in London)
- your credit history is good and you can afford the mortgage payments and other costs
- you want to buy between 25% and 75% share of a home
- you have a deposit of at least 10% of the share you want to buy.
Once I’ve bought a home through Shared Ownership, how do I buy more shares?
Once you've bought your home, you can choose to buy more shares from the housing association until you own 100% of your home. This is known as staircasing.
You can usually buy a minimum share of 10% each time. The cost of the share is based on the price of your home at that time. If you choose to borrow money against your home to buy extra shares, your mortgage balance and monthly payments will go up. If you do this, your rent will go down as you’ll own more of your home.
You may need to pay admin and legal fees each time you buy more of your home.
With us, borrowing more is subject to our lending policy and if we think you can afford it.
How do I get started?
If you’d like to know more, take a look at
Shared Ownership help and advice on the government website.
You can also read our Shared Ownership factsheet.
If you think Shared Ownership might be right for you, call us and we’ll be happy to help.
YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE
Applications are subject to status and lending criteria. Applicants must be UK residents aged 18 or over. The amount we will lend depends on your circumstances, the amount borrowed and the property. A higher deposit may be required for a flat or new build.