Shared Equity

An introduction to shared equity as a form of joint mortgage

Shared equity is a new form of joint ownership/ joint mortgage that the Government is promoting as a way of helping first time buyers to get on the property ladder. You can find information on shared mortgages between friends, couples or family members at www.sharetobuy.com or read on for further information on Shared Equity, as a new form of joint ownership of property that looks like becoming increasingly popular with first time buyers.

News on Shared Equity proposals

With the struggle for first time buyers becoming a major political issue, the Government has proposed a new Shared Equity scheme for first time buyers to help them buy property. Under the shared equity scheme, buyers could take a 75% mortgage with the remaining 25% covered by an equity loan from the lender and the government. HomeBuy is designed to create an extra 100,000 homeowners by 2010.

Share to buy: another way to buy equity shares in property

We should stress that Shared Equity is still in its early years and more established forms of shared mortgage already exist including:

• The share to buy mortgage for buying a property with friends: at sharetobuy.com, we have a range of exclusive and standard deals available to help friends looking to take out a joint mortgage; there is no charge and we provide a free legal agreement to cover the key issues of joint ownership which apply when buying property with friends.
• Standard joint mortgage for couples or partners looking to buy a home together. We can arrange a joint mortgage for you and won't charge a fee.
• Family mortgages. our focus on shared mortgages with family members means that we have built up considerable experience of how different lenders will treat family members buying property together. For example, it is common in family mortgages for retirement age to be an issue and we have lenders on our panel who are flexible on this issue.
• Shared Ownership mortgages: where you part buy / part rent from a Housing Association. We can arrange a shared ownership mortgage for you and won't charge a fee.

Shared mortgage case studies

PIC Case study 1: father and son take out a shared mortgage in Preston. PIC Case study 2: five friends take out a shared mortgage in Newcastle

Shared equity FAQs

What is the difference between Shared Equity schemes and Shared Ownership?

With shared equity, you buy a given equity share of the property (e.g. 75%) but while the developer and/or Government own the remaining share, you do not pay rent on it. With shared ownership you pay rent on the equity share that the housing association retains.

What is difference between shared equity schemes and share to buy?

With shared equity, you buy a given equity share of the property (e.g. 75%) and the developer and/or Government own the remaining share. With share to buy, this refers to buying property with friends or buying property with a family member. In other words, you still have a form of shared equity in that you do not own the whole property but have a share in it, the main difference is that you are sharing the joint ownership of the property with other private individuals rather than the Government.

Where can I find more information on shared equity?

For news on shared equity we suggest you search the BBC website or contact the Housing Corporation. If you are actually looking for a family mortgage, shared mortgage with friends or other joint mortgage, such as with your partner, go to www.sharetobuy.com where you will find a range of information and services for shared mortgages.

 

shared mortgages specialists

tel: 0845 271 0890

additional shared equity information from share to buy