Shared ownership — part buy, part rent.

How shared ownership works

You buy a share of a home and rent the rest. In practice that means:

• You buy a share — usually between 10% and 75% of the home's full value — using a deposit and a mortgage on that share. Because you only buy part, the deposit and mortgage are smaller than buying outright.
• You pay subsidised rent on the share you don't own, to the housing association or landlord that owns it. This rent is set below a normal market rent.
• You pay a service charge (and sometimes ground rent) on top — this covers building maintenance, especially for flats.
• You are a leaseholder. You own a long lease on your share, not the freehold, so the lease terms and length matter a great deal.

Most shared ownership homes are new-build or resales from housing associations. You can later buy bigger shares — see staircasing below.

Are you eligible?

To buy through shared ownership in England you generally need to meet all of these:

• Household income under £80,000 a year — or under £90,000 in London.
• You can't afford a suitable home for your needs on the open market — the scheme is for people priced out of buying outright.
• You are a first-time buyer, someone who used to own a home but can't afford to buy now, or an existing shared owner moving home.
• You can get a mortgage and a deposit for your share and pass the lender's affordability checks. Some shared ownership homes are prioritised for local people, key workers, or people with a disability.

Buying more later — staircasing

Staircasing means buying extra shares in your home after you move in. As your share grows, the rent you pay on the rest goes down.

• Under the 2021 new model lease, you can staircase in steps as small as 1% in the early years — useful if you can only afford small increases.
• Under older leases, you usually buy in larger chunks of at least 10% at a time.
• You can usually staircase all the way to 100% and own the home outright — but some homes (for example certain rural or older-person properties) cap how far you can go.
• Each staircasing purchase needs a fresh valuation (you buy more shares at the home's current market value, so a rising market means later shares cost more), plus legal and mortgage costs.

The honest downsides

Shared ownership is often cheaper to get into than buying outright, and can beat renting long-term — but go in with your eyes open. The things people most often wish they'd understood first:

• You pay a mortgage AND rent AND a service charge — add all three (plus any ground rent) to get the true monthly cost, not just the mortgage.
• You usually pay 100% of the service charge and repairs even on the share you don't own. On flats these charges can be high and include large one-off "major works" bills.
• Rent rises every year, often linked to RPI or CPI inflation — so budget for it going up, not staying flat.
• It is leasehold, so the remaining lease length matters when you sell or remortgage; the 2021 model uses long 990-year leases, older ones can be shorter.
• Selling can be slower. The landlord often has a set period (a "nomination period") to find a buyer before you can sell on the open market, and resales must usually be sold as shared ownership.

How to find and buy a shared ownership home

1. Check you're eligible (income under £80,000, or £90,000 in London, and unable to buy suitably outright).
2. Search and register through Share to Buy, your local Help to Buy agent, and individual housing associations covering your area.
3. Work out the true monthly cost (mortgage + rent + service charge + ground rent) and get a mortgage agreement in principle from a lender that offers shared ownership mortgages.
4. Reserve the home and pay a reservation fee; the provider will assess your affordability.
5. Use a shared-ownership-experienced solicitor to check the lease length, rent review terms, service charge history, staircasing rules and the resale/nomination period before you exchange. See the full SortedUK home-buying journey for the survey and conveyancing steps.

Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland

The English shared ownership model doesn't apply across the whole UK — each nation runs its own version:

• Scotland uses shared equity schemes through LIFT — the New Supply Shared Equity (new-build) and Open Market Shared Equity (existing homes) schemes — rather than the English shared ownership lease. Check mygov.scot.
• Wales offers shared ownership through housing associations alongside Help to Buy — Wales. Check the Welsh Government and Tai Teg.
• Northern Ireland has Co-Ownership, which works in a broadly similar part-buy, part-rent way. Check co-ownership.org.

Shared ownership — common questions