Shared owners prop up housing associations’ falling sales figures

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government, Tenure

Shared ownership schemes accounted for a whopping 86% of the 10,376 properties sold by registered providers during 2011/12, according to government figures, while full ownership sales fell by nearly 30%.

According to social housing lettings data published by the Department for Communities and Local Government – the number of social sales has reduced over the last few years to around 10,000 per year, having been fairly steady for the few years previously at around 16,000-17,000 per year.

The reduction in sales, it says, reflects the change in the housing and mortgage market following the 2007 credit crunch.

Sales have increased slightly by 4% compared to a year ago with shared ownership schemes accounting for the majority of sales during the last year (86%).

However, full ownership schemes – such as Right to Buy – represented 7% of all sales in 2011/12, according to the data. Full ownership sales have fallen by 29% over the previous year, which it says, probably reflects the cessation of the HomeBuy Direct scheme, which accounted for 4% of all sales and 36% of full ownership sales in 2010/11.

Across the shared ownership schemes, the most typical initial share purchased in 2011/12 was 50%, compared to 25% in 2010/11.

The most typical share purchased in New Build HomeBuy increased from 25% in 2010/11 to 40%.

The average market value of social sales during 2011/12 was £169,761.