Shared Ownership: Buying shares and selling

You’re a Shared Owner – what are your next steps?

You went through the process of finding, viewing and buying a Shared Ownership home, and you’ve been happily living in your abode for a while now – but getting that first step onto the property ladder doesn’t have to be the end of your journey.

Whether you want to purchase extra shares, buy out your home or sell and move on, you can find out more about your next steps here!

Buying more of your Shared Ownership home

As and when your financial circumstances change, you can choose to buy more shares in your Shared Ownership home through a process known as ‘staircasing’; this is completely optional and you do not have to buy more shares if you don’t want to.

The greater the share you buy in your home the less rent you will pay to your housing association. In most instance, you can purchase up to 100% of your home, in which case you are no longer required to pay any rent, just your mortgage along with any relevant service charges and ground rent. At this stage, if you wish to sell, you’re no longer required to give your housing association the opportunity to market the property first.

You may acquire additional shares in your property at a price equal to the relevant proportion of the current full open market value of the property. For example: if your home is valued at £300,000 and you want to buy an additional 25% share, the purchase price of your share will be £75,000.

Shared owners were previously allowed to make three applications to buy more shares in their home with the final application resulting in the purchase of the remaining shares in the property, but this has changed since September 2011 with no restrictions on the number of staircasing applications you can make in certain homes. However, we would always recommend checking the terms of your lease in case there are any limitations to the process.

The staircasing process will vary depending on which version of the Shared Ownership scheme you bought with as some changes were introduced as part of the new Shared Ownership model in 2021/2022. For more in-depth information, please visit our staircasing guide.

Selling your Shared Ownership home

If you choose to sell your Shared Ownership home, you will first need to contact your housing association to make them aware. You’ll also need to obtain an independent valuation prior to sale to determine the current value of the property.

Generally speaking, your provider will have around an eight week period to market your home first and, if they find a buyer, they will go through a similar process to the one you went through when you bought the home. If your provider doesn’t find a buyer during this time, you can then choose to sell your property privately or through an estate agent of your choice. If you would like to advertise your home on Share to Buy’s property portal, you can find out more here.

You can sell whenever you like and there is no minimum share percentage you must reach, however, it’s worth remembering that you will need to sell your home to another Shared Ownership buyer who is purchasing shares equal to or higher than what you currently own. Find out more about the process of selling your Shared Ownership home here.

Share to Buy is a one stop shop for affordable homes. On our website, you can search for properties, compare mortgages, and find out all you need to know about alternative home-buying schemes using our FAQs and guides. If you’re interested in purchasing a part-buy part-rent home, you can find out more via our article index and Shared Ownership terms and conditions.