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Buying Your Own Home
Please note - Shared Ownership may not be available at this time, due to changes to the benefits (SMI) which help to pay for the mortgage.
Shared Ownership is a way to help you buy your own home. It means that people on very low incomes can buy their own home.
How it works
You own a percentage of the home, and a Housing Association own the rest. You pay them rent for their share. What percentage you own can vary.
You can buy your part by getting a mortgage. There are some organisations that specialise in mortgages for Shared Ownership for people with Learning Disabilities. These are normally long-term interest only mortgages where you only repay the interest not the capital.
You use a government benefit called ‘Support for Mortgage Interest’ to make the mortgage payments. You can qualify for this benefit if you’re on Income Support.You use Housing Benefits to pay the rent to the Housing Association and any service charges on the property. Service charges are usually for the cost of maintaining the property. This might include things like gutters and roofs.
There are some great benefits.You can chose your own house. You can live alone and don’t have to share with someone else. It’s your house so you can decide who comes in. You chose the decoration and the furniture. It’s your house so as long as you keep up the mortgage repayments you won’t have to move unless you want to.
There are some important things to think about.
Do I want to live on my own?
What support might I need to live on my own? Who will provide this?
Can I get the benefits needed to pay for the mortgage?
Will I ever want to get a job? If you get a job then you might not be eligible for the benefits you need to pay the mortgage.
Can you understand the basic terms of the mortgage? If not you can still be a home owner but a Deputy might need to be appointed to sign the mortgage on your behalf.
If you want to do Shared Ownership you will need:
To be on (or eligible) for the right benefits this includes Support for Mortgage Interest and Housing Benefit. You can check what benefits you might be eligible for here.
To have the capacity to understand the basics of the mortgage or appoint a Deputy (the process of appointing a Deputy can take around 6 months)
To find out what you can afford to buy. This will depend on the proportion you want to own, rent levels and the cost of the property
To make a mortgage application. You may want to get support from someone who understands the Shared Ownership process.
To get legal advice on the contract especially to agree what happens if you want to move and what happens if the value of the property has changed when you want to move.
