Staircasing

If you have purchased a share of your home under the Shared Ownership or previously the NewBuild HomeBuy scheme, you are entitled to buy further shares if you can afford to. This is known as "staircasing". You don't need to buy 100% of the shared ownership property straight away. You can acquire more shares in your home in small, manageable chunks. You may be interested to know that buying a shared ownership property outright may not cost as much as you think. In many cases, the cost of monthly payments on a 100% mortgage are only marginally higher than the combined shared ownership mortgage and rent you currently pay. We're working with independent financial advisers, to offer you free, impartial advice on buying more shares in your home. Though you will need to pay for a valuation and legal fees, there are lots of competitive deals out there at the moment to encourage outright ownership.  So why not get in touch and find out about owning the whole of your shared ownership home?

What is staircasing?

Most leases allow you to buy more shares in your shared ownership home, until you own it outright. This process of increasing your share is called 'staircasing'. Once you own 100%, you will stop paying rent to the relevant Housing Association although there still may be an element of service charge to pay on some shared ownership properties. The price you pay for each share depends on the value of your shared ownership home at the time you want to buy. If you live in a shared ownership house you will normally be granted the freehold title on your property, but in certain circumstances the association may only be able to transfer its leasehold title. What you need to do;

• You need to inform the relevant Housing Association in writing of your intentions, if you want to buy a larger share, or own your shared ownership home outright.
• You need to appoint a qualified chartered surveyor to value your home. We have a panel of specialist shared ownership surveyors, click here.
• The relevant Housing Association requires the original copy of this valuation report. On receipt of this valuation, The Housing Association will write to you to confirm whether or not we accept the report as evidence of the properties deemed market value.
• Please inform your valuer of any improvements you have made to the property which may have affected the value of your home. The value of any improvements will not be taken into account by The Housing Association when calculating your expected return from the sale of equity.
• You then need to appoint a solicitor to act on your behalf. We need your appointed solicitor’s full details, so we can inform our solicitors. We have a panel of specialist shared ownership solicitors, click here.
• Both solicitors will then liaise to complete the necessary paperwork ready for the completion of the transfer. In the meantime, you will need to sort out your mortgage requirements. We have a panel of specialist shared ownership mortgage providers, click here. When the Housing Association receive proof of your mortgage offer, they will then approve to dispose of The Housing Association's share in the property (Please note, this approval is carried out on a regular basis).
• On completion, the association requires its share agreed in point two.