Staircasing: own more of your home
Staircasing is the process of buying more shares in your home over a period of time. Aim to staircase up to 100% and own your home outright. Learn more about how to staircase and what the benefits are.
Valuing your home
How much is your home worth?Working out your rent after staircasing
What will your new rent be?Costs to consider
Valuation fees, legal fees and mortgage fees.Staircasing instruction form
Submitting your instruction to staircase.How does staircasing work?
Buying more shares means you’ll increase your investment in your home and pay less rent.
When you own 100%, you’ll no longer pay rent at all.
Five steps to staircasing:
- Step 1 - check your lease and value your home.
- Step 2 - submit your staircasing instruction.
- Step 3 - start the legal process.
- Step 4 - final steps to complete.
- Step 5 - review your new ownership status.
How much is your home worth?
When you buy more shares, you’ll buy them at the current market value. Before spending money on a valuation report, look on websites such as Zoopla or Rightmove to get a rough idea of your home's value.
Get mortgage advice
Speak to your mortgage lender or an independent mortgage advisor to determine how many more shares you’re able to buy. Each situation is individual, and we recommend you find someone with particular experience of shared ownership.
Our panel of mortgage advisors have lots of experience in the shared ownership market. They also have unique experience of our developments.
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Four steps to working out your new rent
- Step 1 - decide how much you want to buy
Let's say you currently own 25% and pay £800 rent but you want to buy another 25%. This means your unowned share will decrease from 75% to 50%. - Step 2 - divide by your previous unowned share
Divide your new unowned share of 50% by your previous unowned share. In this example, the equation would be 50 ÷ 75. - Step 3 - multiply by your current monthly rent
First, divide the result by the amount of rent you pay. For the purpose of this example, the rent is £800: 50 ÷ 75 x 800 = 533.33 - Step 4 - review your new monthly rent
Your new monthly rent would be £533.33.
| Remember, rent is reviewed every April. All calculations will be subject to this. |
Check your lease
Most shared ownership leases allow you to buy shares in chunks of 10% or more up to 100% ownership, but not always. If you’re not sure, you can find this information in your lease. You can get a copy of your lease from the land registry.
Consider your costs
You’ll need to pay for your valuation fees, legal fees, any additional mortgage fees and our administration fee. Stamp Duty may also be a factor. Check our Staircasing FAQs for more information.
Submit your staircasing instruction form
The process will be easier, and quicker, if you make sure you have all the details required ready to submit with your form.
What you do
Have you spoken to your mortgage provider and solicitor? Have you got a valuation and all the details required for the staircasing instruction form?
The independent mortgage advisors on our panel have experience in the shared ownership market. Their knowledge will help to calculate how much you can afford to staircase by, based on an estimated value of your home.
If it's a joint instruction, you’ll need this for both people purchasing more shares.
Send your instruction and we'll be in touch within three working days.
To complete the process you'll need to appoint a solicitor, ideally with specific knowledge of shared ownership, and make a mortgage application.
What we do
We'll work with your solicitor with the aim to complete the staircasing transaction within three months* of your valuation.
Your submitted instruction form will be reviewed upon receipt and we'll discuss your valuation with you.
We may need to carry out anti money laundering checks in addition to those carried out by your solicitor or mortgage advisor. If we do, we'll request copies of bank statements and payslips for three consecutive months.
We'll send an offer based on your instruction and the valuation.
When the offer's agreed the sale will complete and your new ownership status will be updated.
*Subject to individual circumstances. Not all transactions complete within three months of the valuation; some take less than three months and some take more.