Buying a shared ownership home
- Shared Ownership, also known as ‘part-buy, part-rent’ is a great option for new home buyers, or for those struggling to save a large deposit
- Unlike buying somewhere on the open-market, you don’t need a deposit for 100% of the property price
- Instead you’ll purchase a share of the property, which is usually anywhere between 25% and 75%, and pay low-cost rent on the remaining share. In many cases, you’ll only need a 5% deposit of the share you're purchasing
If you’ve never owned a home before, shared ownership’s a fantastic opportunity to get on the housing ladder. It’s also a great option if you’re in one of the following groups:
- You’ve owned a home before, but can’t afford to buy one now
- You’re forming a new household (for example, following a relationship breakdown)
- You’re an existing shared owner and want to move to a new home
- You own a home, but can’t afford to buy a new one that suits your current needs
Am I eligible?
- You can apply if your household income is £80,000 a year or less
- If you own another property in the UK or abroad, you’ll need to sell this at the same time as buying your new shared ownership home & this will need to be under offer at the point of applying for a home
- For some homes, priority may go to those employed by the Ministry of Defence, or with a local connection to the area. We’ll make this clear on our property pages
There are 3 main stages that you’ll go through to apply for your new home with us:
- All our available homes can be found on our website, yourvividhome.co.uk
- Once you find a home you like, check the listings for any local connection criteria and if you meet these and fill out the online application form
- Once we’ve received your application, we’ll check you’re eligible to apply for Shared Ownership. If you also meet the priority criteria for the development, we’ll get in touch with your next steps
- If you’re not in a priority group, we’ll let you know you’re ‘on hold’ until we can consider your application
- If you progress to this stage, we’ll ask you to speak to a Financial Advisor to talk about your affordability and confirm the share that you could buy
- There are many Financial Advisors you could use to understand and apply for a Shared Ownership mortgage on your behalf. Every Financial Advisor has a duty to find you the mortgage that’s best for you. They’ll need to keep in mind VIVID’s timescales for any mortgage that’s offered to you, as it needs to meet our sales time frame
- We’ll signpost you to our panel Financial Advisors who don’t charge you a fee for their advice. If you choose to use another Financial Advisor that’s absolutely fine and your choice won’t impact our decision on whether you buy a home from us
- Your Financial Advisor will provide us with your financial assessment and budget planner, mortgage decision-in-principle from your lender, or tell us if you’ll be a cash
buyer. They’ll also collect your proof of address and deposit. We’ll also ask you to tell us your plot choices at this stage
Please note: VIVID are not a credit broker.
Our panel financial advisors are:
Chartwell Funding | phone: 01454 540 500 | email: vivid@chartwellfunding.co.uk
Mortgage Decisions | phone: 03454 500 200 | email: vivid@mortgagedecisions.com
The Mortgage Village | phone: 0330 133 7244 | email: admin@themortgagevillage.com
Shared Ownership is a really popular way to buy a home, so you might not be successful first time around, but with a bit of time hopefully you’ll find your ideal home. Keep checking our website for any more phases being released or new developments in your search area. You can also join our mailing list to make sure you’re the first to hear about our new homes.
- If you’re successful, you’ll hear from us with the good news. We’ll send you the form to reserve your new home!
- You’ll start the legal process and exchange within 28 days from your solicitor receiving the sales pack.
- We’ll be in touch if you’re not successful this time around. We know it may be disappointing not to get your first choice property / development, but we often have more new homes released in the same area or sometimes even on the same development, so hopefully you’ll still find your ideal home with us in the future.
You can read more about our approach in our Sales policy, in our policies.
The next steps after you’ve been offered your new home:
- Check over any paperwork that has been sent over to make sure you're happy with the details
- Our Sales Executive will be in touch and will be your point of contact throughout your purchase
- You'll need to pay a £250 reservation fee and tell us your solicitor so they can make a start on the legal paperwork
- If you don’t have a solicitor, that’s okay as we have panel solicitors who we recommend for you to use. Their details will be on the memorandum of sale, you just need to get in touch with them so that they can provide you with a quote and a client care pack to read through and complete.
- Your financial advisor will submit your mortgage application and you’ll need to pay your solicitor some initial fees to start work
- Your lender will contact us to arrange a valuation before issuing your mortgage offer and your solicitors will arrange any searches. Once completed and your mortgage is approved, you’ll get your contract to sign
- You’ll then need to pay your solicitor your deposit monies (typically at least 5% of the share you’re purchasing but your financial advisor will confirm this) and exchange contracts with us. You’ll need to reach this stage and exchange contracts with us within 28 days from your legal pack being sent to your solicitor
- If your new home’s ready, we’ll aim to move you in within 5 days. If the home’s not fully built, you’ll need to be ready to complete within 5 days from the developer handing over the home to us
- View our helpful guidance videos with property expert, Phil Spencer, where he talks about shared ownership and our application process
- Read our useful guide ‘Key Information about Shared Ownership and how it works’
- Find more details about costs and the lease for the property you’re considering, on the ‘Key information’ button on our property pages
- If you're applying for a shared ownership property and wish to raise a Reasonable Adjustment request, and you're not already a VIVID tenant/ shared owner, please contact sales@vividhomes.co.uk. The sales team will then pick up your request and review if it’s an adjustment that we can make. If you're already a VIVID customer, then please get in touch and we can look at ways to help support you
- If you are also having any issues, including technical issues in completing an application form to purchase a shared ownership home, please contact sales@vividhomes.co.uk
You can find out more about our Shared Ownership option on our Sales website.
