Shared Ownership

Your clients, if eligible for the scheme, would buy a share of a home (usually between 25% and 75%), meaning they require a smaller deposit and mortgage, and pay rent on the share they don't own. In time, the buyer may have the option to purchase additional shares, up to full ownership. This is known as staircasing.

Available for both purchases and remortgages, if you have a client looking for a more affordable way to purchase a property then Shared Ownership could be an ideal solution.

Our Shared Ownership mortgages are only available in England and Wales.

Our Shared Ownership mortgages are also available with a delayed start feature, offering no mortgage repayments for up to the first three months (1, 2 or 3 months – depending on the product chosen) after completion. Interest will accrue from day one. This means your clients will pay more in interest over the term of the mortgage and their monthly payments will be slightly higher than if they had started paying in month one. Rent payments to the housing association or registered landlord are still due from the start of the term.

Top tip – when submitting Shared Ownership applications please be sure to specify the loan type as Shared Ownership and not as a Standard Purchase to ensure your application is progressed as quickly as possible.

Why choose Skipton?

We pride ourself on our human touch approach. Our underwriting decisions are made by people, not computers and we offer a dedicated support and underwriting team who will keep in touch and help you and our customers.

Key Lending Policy:

• Where your client is staircasing to full ownership (no longer Shared Ownership) the max LTV is 95%. Standard products can be selected where the LTV is up to 90%. Where the LTV is more than 90%, specific Shared Ownership, 'staircasing to 100% ownership' products should be used.
• Where the incentive amount is more than 2% and less than or equal to 5%, the Maximum LTV will be reduced by 5%
  • Example: max LTV for New Build flat is 95%. If the property had an incentive more than 2%, the max LTV allowed is 90%.
  • Financial incentives less than or equal to 2% no LTV restrictions apply.
  • Our Track Record Mortgage can be used to borrow up to 100% LTV of the borrowers share of the property (additional eligibility criteria applies).
• Minimum of £5,000 additional borrowing for Shared Ownership, where there is an element of staircasing (with no element of staircasing, the minimum additional borrowing loan is £10,000).
• Accept 100% of maintenance received and tax benefits as income.
• Accept up to 20% site exposure in any development.
• Staircasing up to 100% ownership must be permitted.
• Available across the whole of England only.
• Housing Association consent required.
• Max term 40 years.

We also offer:

• 9+3 month offer validity period for New Build properties (6 months otherwise).
• An increased procuration fee of 0.45% for all new Shared Ownership business, as we recognise the extra work required when submitting these applications.
• No charge for a valuation for mortgage purposes where the property is worth less than £1.5 million which is instructed on day one.
• Shared Ownership remortgage products available, often including fee assisted conveyancing. For remortgages that include fee assisted conveyancing services, there may be some additional legal costs payable.
• Priority underwriting for New Build purchases.
• Also available with a delayed start feature.

Full details of the policy can be found in the Shared Ownership section in our A-Z lending policy.

Key information

Useful links and documents