Shared ownership works in three key ways.

1.    You own a portion

Shared ownership is a buying scheme where you only purchase a share of the property. mortgage for shared ownership offer you agreed to, and still need to pay interest rates.

Just like any residential mortgage, you’ll want to go to an independent shared ownership mortgage broker like Your Certified Expert to gain quick access to offers from over 300 different lenders in the UK.

By going through a mortgage broker for shared ownership like this, you’ll be able to see the best mortgage offers available to you quickly, and without any bias.

2.    You pay rent on the rest

You’ll then need to pay rent on the remaining share of your property to the housing association or developer. This rent is below market rate, so you should pay less rent than you would if you were to rent the property of a similar size.

3.    You can increase your share

You have the right to buy more shares in your property, which is known as staircasing. Every time you staircase, the cost is the market value of the day. This means that if it takes you a considerable amount of time to staircase, the next 25% you purchase could be significantly more expensive than the first due to home value increases.

You can staircase all the way up to 100%. The housing association or developer can only deny you staircasing in a few examples. For example, you may only be able to staircase after a certain amount of time, by a certain percentage at a time, or by a certain amount. Check your lease.

Unless you have the money to pay for the next percentage out of pocket, you’ll need to either get a second mortgage for shared ownership, or get a new mortgage for shared ownership that covers the full cost of your new ownership.

If you aren’t sure which of these shared ownership mortgages is best for you, then get in touch with a shared ownership mortgage advisor.

Some shared ownership mortgages may be better individually, meaning you pay less overall with two separate mortgages. In other cases you may want to find a new mortgage through a shared ownership mortgage broker that covers both share purchases, giving you just one repayment to worry about.

If you sell, you only get your share

You have to sell the property usually on to the housing association. If not, you’ll then need to work with the housing association in order to find a buyer. Once you sell, you only get the portion that makes up your share. If you own 25%, for example, you’ll only get 25% of the purchase price.

There are several reasons why you’ll want to go to a shared ownership mortgage broker to get a loan that can buy a percentage of the property you want:

1. 1. Lower upfront costs
   2. Smaller deposits
   3. Easier entry into the property market
   4. Reduced rent
   5. Staircasing opportunities

Of course, one of the things that your mortgage broker shared ownership specialist will advise you on is the downsides of shared ownership. They may recommend you buy more of the property, or instead consider a standard residential mortgage depending on the property and your circumstances.

This is because there are several drawbacks to shared ownership:

1. 1. Ongoing rent payments
   2. You’re still responsible for the maintenance costs
   3. Staircasing can get expensive
   4. You’re restricted when you want to sell
   5. There may be limits to how quickly or by how much you can staircas