Buying Process.
Buying a new home is a life-changing experience. The buying process and requirements for Shared Ownership are a little different to when you buy a home outright. Find out how to make your shared ownership buying journey as smooth and stress free as possible, with our step-by-step guide.
Step One - Check eligibility
Before you can view and buy a shared ownership home, you’ll first need to make sure that you’re eligible. Find out more about Shared Ownership eligibility here. You can also confirm your eligibility on the government website: Where do you want to buy a home?
Step Two - Affordability assessment
You’ll need to go through an affordability assessment to make sure that Shared Ownership is an affordable and sustainable home ownership option for you. Metro Finance who are Shared Ownership specialists, will carry out this assessment on our behalf and will determine the size of share that’s affordable for you to purchase. Please have the following information to hand for this assessment:  Plot number of house & price of the home that you’re interested in Available deposit  Basic employment income (last three payslips)  Any overtime, bonuses or commission income  Any pay deductions (for example: childcare, pensions) along with any monthly commitments such as loans, credit cards or hire purchase agreements  Any credit card balances  Any bad credit (CCJ’s) You’ll also need to provide:  Proof of funds (including gifted deposit letter and gifters ID where applicable)  Photo ID  Proof of address  Please remember if there are two people applying for the mortgage, you’ll both need to provide these documents. You’ll receive a Mortgage in Principle which proposes the amount the Mortgage lender is prepared to lend, the interest rate and the number of years to repay.
Step Three - Organise a viewing
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Now that we’ve established that you’re eligible for shared ownership and that it’s affordable and sustainable for you, we carry out a viewing. Sometimes our homes are reserved off plan which means you commit to buying a home that is still being built and therefore a viewing of the plot you’re interested in isn’t always possible.
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Some of our developments have a show home that you can view, it may not be exactly the same home that you’re considering buying, but it gives a good feel of the style, specification and finishes of the homes on that development. You can also quiz our sales negotiators face to face and ask them any questions you may have. It will give you a great opportunity to explore the local area too.
Step Four – Reservation
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It’s now time to reserve your new home!
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Your £500 reservation fee secures the home for you while the sale progresses and will be deducted from your purchase price at point of completion. As part of your reservation appointment, your sales negotiator will complete a reservation form with you, talk you through all the terms, conditions and key information regarding your purchase.
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Please note, shared ownership homes are allocated on a first come first served basis and homes are not reserved until a reservation appointment has been conducted and the £500 fee received.
Now is the time to apply for your mortgage. As soon as you receive your mortgage offer, send it over to your sales negotiator to make sure there are no delays with your house sale. If at any point there are any changes made to your mortgage offer, you’ll need to let your sales negotiator know about these too.
You’ll need to appoint a solicitor to act on your behalf. They will handle the ‘conveyancing’ for you (transferring the title of the home legally to you), as part of the process they will:
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Check the lease and speak to your mortgage lender and our solicitors
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Carry out searches
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Check all the paperwork and mortgage are in place to allow you to buy your new home
To help the process go as smoothly as possible, make sure that the solicitor you choose has experience with Shared Ownership. If you need any help with suggested solicitors, please speak to your sales negotiator.
Once you’ve found a solicitor, we’ll send your solicitors and ours a Memorandum of Sale, which summarises the purchase of your home and allows our solicitors to send draft documents over to your solicitors.
Step Five - Apply for a mortgage & find a solicitor
Step Six – Exchange Contracts
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At this point the transaction becomes legally binding and you know that the home is going to be yours! You’ll need to:
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Sign a contract which will map out your agreement with Halton Housing to buy the property. We sign a contract too, so that we’re legally bound to fulfil our side of the agreement.
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Provide your deposit to your solicitor which will be transferred to ours at exchange.
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Finally, it’s time for you to get the keys to your new shared ownership home! At your solicitor’s request, your mortgage lender will release the funds to pay for your home. Once the funds have been transferred you can arrange with your sales negotiator to collect the keys to your new home!
Step Seven – Completion Day!
Shared Ownership is a way to buy your own home if you can’t afford to buy a house outright. It’s a great way to get onto the housing ladder and costs are usually lower than other home ownership options...
Whether or not you qualify for a Shared Ownership home is often referred to as ‘eligibility’ and is dependent on a number of factors...
We’ve put together answers to some of most frequently asked questions handled by our sales team.
If there’s anything else you want to see added here, or you have any other type of enquiry, fill in our contact form and let us know. We really value your feedback.