Shared Ownership

 

Shared Ownership flats fly off the shelves

 

Apartments at Hartington Street, Loughborough -

winners of the Green Apple Awards (Bronze) 2006

The 20 shared ownership flats at NCHA’s Appletree Close mixed-tenure scheme in Newark flew off the shelf.

The flats were completed on 30 June 2006 and the first sale, managed by local agents Newton and Derry, agreed two weeks later.

All the properties were sold by the end of October. Each buyer paid £47,500 for a 50 per cent share of the full value of £95,000.

‘It’s the same story with our low cost home ownership schemes across the East Midlands,’ says the Association’s Home Ownership Manager David Simmons. ‘Rising house prices are putting conventional ownership out of the reach of many people , which makes the NCHA shared ownership option even more attractive. It’s a very buoyant market for us.’

 

‘We target first time buyers, including housing association and council tenants. Most of our customers are in their 20s and 30s and they include teachers, nurses and other key workers. The cost of buying a 50 per cent share and paying 50 per cent as rent is about 25 to 30 per cent cheaper than outright purchase. Our customers get good value for their money. We get high levels of customer satisfaction and no significant arrears problems.’

 

Homes for low-cost home ownership are a feature of all NCHA’s major developments. The recently completed Countess Road scheme in Northampton, for example, is a brownfield  redevelopment of 142 mixed tenure homes of which 47 are shared ownership.  Here, a 50 per cent stake costs £61,250.

 

In Leicester, the association’s award-winning Fabric development has seen 40 one and two bedroom flats fashioned from a handsome Victorian hosiery factory for rent, shared ownership and sale. The Association is working with local organisations to market the new shared ownership homes and homes for sale among the city’s Asian community.

 

 

Further reading

 

For more information about NCHA’s low-cost ownership work in rural areas please read the "Housing hope in the Derbyshire Dales" section of this report. 

 

For more information about NCHA’s shared-ownership schemes please click here

 

 

Click here to return to the Annual Report 2007.