Shared ownership Buying more shares

You can usually buy more shares in your property until you own 100% of your home. This process is called staircasing.

When you staircase, you buy the extra share in the property at the current market value.

The more of your home you own, the less rent you’ll pay us each month. You only pay rent on the percentage of your home you don’t own.

If you staircase to own 100% of your home, you’ll no longer pay us rent and you’ll no longer be an assured tenant. If you also pay us a service charge, you may still need to pay this.

Sometimes there might be restrictions on how many shares you can buy. This can happen in areas where there’s a shortage of shared ownership homes and the local authority wants to make sure your home always stays as a shared ownership property.

How the staircasing process works

You can staircase up to three times after you buy your first share. Your lease will explain how much you can staircase by each time. Usually, it’s between 5% and 25% at a time, but you may be able to buy shares of 1% each year for the first 15 years for some properties if they were built under the 2021-2026 Affordable Housing Programme.

If you have bought a home that is not brand new, you will need to check if any previous owners have already bought extra shares, as you can only staircase three times for each property. If any previous owners have staircased once before, you may only staircase another two times.

If you’re not buying a brand-new home, you may not be able to buy more shares until three months after you have bought your first share.

When you begin the staircasing process, we’ll ask a valuer who is registered with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) or the Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers (ISVA) to independently assess the current market value of your home. The value of the share you own will be based on this assessment. Alternatively, you can provide us with a RICS or ISVA valuation to start the process. We can’t accept valuations from estate agents.

If you would like us to arrange the valuation for you, you’ll need to fill in a valuation form and pay for this service before we instruct the valuer. If you decide not to go ahead after the valuation has been carried out, you will not be refunded for the valuer’s fees.

Any improvements you’ve made to your home will be accounted for as part of the valuer’s assessment. The cost of any improvements won’t be deducted from the valuation.

Once the valuation is completed, we will confirm the value and cost of buying more shares in your property. If you’re happy to proceed, we’ll ask you to provide your solicitor’s details so that we can instruct our solicitors.

If you’re thinking about buying more shares in your shared ownership home, download our staircasing guide to find out more or contact our Staircasing team to discuss your next steps.