The scheme offers newly built properties on a shared equity or shared ownership basis. The properties are made available by private sector house builders on specific housing developments in Cardiff.
Shared equity
This usually means that a successful applicant will finance the greater share of the property through a mortgage and personal savings. And the council, or a nominated housing association, will finance the lesser share.
The exact share available to own will depend on the criteria of the property offered under the scheme, but this will typically be 70%. As this is a shared equity arrangement you won’t have to pay rent on the share that you do not own.
You will repay the share you don’t own when you sell the property or buy it outright. This will be based on the current market value at the time.
Shared ownership
Usually the scheme runs on the shared equity model but occasionally an ownership opportunity becomes available. This differs from the shared equity in that the successful applicant would pay a discounted rent on the percentage of the property that they do not own. This allows you to buy further shares (known as ‘staircasing’). This means you could achieve 100% ownership depending on the terms of the lease.
Resales
Some properties will become available when existing owners who have bought through the scheme decide to sell. We refer to these as resales.
If you bought through the scheme and now wish to sell your property, you must let us know first so that we can find a buyer from the list of applicants on the scheme.
If we are unable to find a buyer for your property within a given time, you are free to sell your property on the open market and repay the council or housing association the agreed share of the purchase price.