Built for Northern Ireland: a shared ownership success story

By Mark Graham, Chief Executive of Co-Ownership.

Co-Ownership has been helping people in Northern Ireland to own their own homes in since 1978. Our model is unique, and we are proud to have supported 33,000 into home ownership in the last 45 years.

Our most recent Social Impact Report states that half of our customers surveyed would have remained in the rental sector without our help, and are now enjoying a secure and affordable home for themselves and their families.

You choose your dream home

Co-Ownership in Northern Ireland allows you to choose a home that best meets your needs. Once you receive your Co-Ownership Approval, you can choose a home for sale on the open market, just like any other buyer. We do have some property criteria, as we want you to buy a property that’s of a good standard and is value for money, but you choose where and what to buy. You might choose to be close to friends or family, work or schools.

In contrast, shared ownership properties in England are generally built and sold by housing associations, so location and house choices are limited.

You buy between 50 and 90% of your home

We help you by purchasing a share of your home of between 10 and 50 per cent, and you take out a mortgage for the rest. You must own at least 50% of your home and we encourage you to take as large a share as you can afford at the outset. We recently increased our property value limit to £195,000 to help more people become homeowners.

Shared ownership works best where property remains affordable, like in Northern Ireland. While we will accept properties up to £195,000, the average value of the homes we buy with our co-owners is around £150,000.

In other housing markets outside Northern Ireland where house prices are much higher, customers can take a share of as little as 10% of the purchase price, up to 75%. Customers may choose a low starter share in, for example, London where property prices are up to five times the value of a comparable place in Northern Ireland. It is very difficult for these customers to ever own the full property when they are starting from such a low share.

Buying us out is easy

Whilst there is no pressure to buy us out, we encourage you to do so as soon as you can. Over 20,000 of our customers have bought out of Co-Ownership. You can buy us out in five per cent slices, known as staircasing, or, as many do, you can buy us out in one go when you are remortgaging.

There may also come a time when you wish to move. To do this you simply put your home up for sale on the open market, like any other seller, and the proceeds are split in line with the equity owned. A customer is welcome to return to Co-Ownership at a later point in their life.

In models outside Northern Ireland, customers are often obliged to offer first refusal to the housing association and can be limited to selling this house to another shared ownership customer, which can make selling your shared ownership home challenging.

There are no extra costs for Co-Ownership customers

As well as paying your mortgage each month to your lender, your only commitment to Co-Ownership once you become a co-owner is your monthly rent, which is currently 2.5% of our share in your house.

It’s important to remember that as a homeowner, you will be responsible for the same recurring costs all homeowners pay – rates, insurance, repairs and maintenance, for example. Any services charges due will be the same for you as all other homeowners in a development.

Built-for-purpose shared ownership developments in England often have services charges associated with them which can that fluctuate and can make living in a shared ownership property expensive. In Northern Ireland, Co-Ownership houses usually work out cheaper than if you were renting privately or buying your home outright.

You can get a Co-Ownership home with no deposit

We’re here to help as many people as we can own their own home, so we understand the most common barriers to home ownership. For example, we have worked with Danske Bank and Progressive to secure zero deposit mortgage products which are supporting low-income earners, single applicants and young families struggling to save for a deposit.

We have recently started to accept one-bed apartments too, broadening who we can help and giving them greater choice.

As Northern Ireland’s regional shared ownership provider, we have the flexibility to ensure that our product meets the needs of those who want to become homeowners. We are proud that our shared ownership model remains accessible, affordable, and relevant as we continue to help people who need it find a place to call home.