What are shared ownership schemes?
Shared ownership schemes are usually operated by housing associations. The housing association builds a new property or renovates an existing one and sells a share of the property to the occupier, who pays rent on the remaining share. The occupier therefore part owns and part rents the property from the housing association. Occupiers can initially buy a 25%, 50% or 75% share and can usually buy further shares of the property over time (this is known as “staircasing”). The CML provides some information on Low Cost Homeownership schemes in the policy section of its website.
