Louise

“It’s life-changing for us. It’s given us the chance to own our own home after renting for 18 years.”

Although they lived in rented accommodation for 18 years, Louise and her husband were desperate to own their own home.

Similarly to Help to Buy, shared ownership gives buyers the chance to step on the property ladder with a low deposit. Based upon your affordability, you can buy an initial share of your home between 25%* and 75% and make a small monthly rent payment for the remaining share that we retain.

STAYING LOCAL

Every question I had along the way, I would ring and get the answer straight away. I never had any problems. They were really helpful and never made me feel like I was asking a silly question.


Louise, originally from Brighouse, West Yorkshire recently moved into her brand new space with her family using shared ownership. She, her husband and their two children are happily settled into their home at the Aura development in Cleckheaton.

“We’ve always lived in Brighouse. I work in Batley and my children go to school in Brighouse, so finding homes available with shared ownership in this area was perfect for us.”

Although they lived in rented accommodation for 18 years, Louise and her husband were desperate to own their own home.
 
“Finding a big deposit seemed impossible for us. We’ve always been more than able to afford the mortgage, it’s just the deposit.”

Similarly to Help to Buy, shared ownership gives buyers the chance to step on the property ladder with a low deposit. Based upon your affordability, you can buy an initial share of your home between 25%* and 75% and make a small monthly rent payment for the remaining share that we retain.

“When I first saw 'shared ownership', I questioned: ‘Do space homes have more right than us?’, "What if I want to sell it? After speaking to Julie, the sales advisor at Space Homes, I realised what it was all about.”

Shared ownership is just another way to buy your home. Read FAQs about shared ownership here. You can purchase additional shares as and when you can afford it, this is called ‘staircasing’. There are no timescales or deadlines on when you must staircase however, the more shares you purchase, the lower your monthly rent payments become.
 
 “I don’t know why people wouldn’t use shared ownership!”

With shared ownership, you are free to treat your home as 100% yours, no matter what share you have bought. This includes decorating, owning pets and even selling the property if you wish to move on.

“We’re going to staircase to buy it all. That’s the plan.”

Staircasing is a great way to increase your share of the property, if and when you can afford it, making home ownership flexible and affordable.

As well as the shared ownership scheme itself, Louise found the Space Homes team to be an invaluable asset to finally getting her perfect family home, saying that she would definitely recommend Space to a friend.
 
“Every question I had along the way, I would ring and get the answer straight away. I never had any problems. They were really helpful and never made me feel like I was asking a silly question.”

We asked Louise to sum up her home buying experience through the shared ownership scheme in one quote.

“It’s life-changing for us. It’s given us the chance to own our own home after renting for 18 years.”

Shared ownership is an excellent way of getting onto the property ladder if you are unable to afford a large deposit. It’s helped plenty of buyers like Louise get out of rented accommodation and into their own space.