Is your goal to purchase your first home? If so, current economic uncertainty, the cost of living, and increased financial pressures could be putting you off taking the first step.
Our Head of Product Management, Luke Pummell, believes this doesn’t have to be the case.
Knowledgeable in all things affordable, below, Luke highlights how Newbury Building Society can help you achieve your home ownership dream and why popping in for a chat could be the best decision you make this year.
Shared Ownership doesn’t mean a ‘shared property’ in the sense you have to live with another person. You live in the whole house, have a mortgage on the share that you ‘buy,’ and pay rent on the remaining amount, usually to the council or a housing association. This means it generally works out less per month than renting privately and definitely less than buying the full 100% of your home.
The benefit of Shared Ownership is that you can buy a percentage share of the overall value of the house and you can buy more of the property when you can afford it – this is called staircasing. For example, you can start with 25% then, if finances work, purchase a further 5%, and so on. This means the rent you pay to the housing association will reduce. We can help you with this step - all you need to do is contact us and we can take it from there.
In short, no. Once the housing association assesses your eligibility for Shared Ownership, you can proceed with arranging a mortgage with us in the standard way.
We may have branches in Berkshire, Hampshire, and Oxfordshire, but we're proud to be one of the few lenders who provide Shared Ownership mortgages up to 95%, lending throughout England and Wales. Our affordable housing-specific mortgages are not postcode-restricted.
We have been helping local people step onto the housing ladder for over 165 years and we are known as a ‘lending veteran’ with over twenty years of experience in affordable housing mortgage lending.
We guarantee you will always be able to speak to a person, not a computer. We understand buying a property and obtaining a mortgage can be an exciting, and sometimes daunting, experience - especially if you’re a first-time buyer or new to the property market. That’s why all our mortgage advisers are committed to speaking to you in a clear and concise way to strip away complex jargon.
The first step (and most important) is to simply talk to us. When you decide to purchase a property through one of the government’s affordable housing schemes, you will want to know what your mortgage options are. We try to simplify the whole process from your initial enquiry all the way through until you move into your new home by providing you with specialist face-to-face advice in a way you can understand.
The government’s affordable housing schemes are not just for first-time buyers, and neither are our mortgages! We regularly help divorcees starting afresh, those whose employment situation has changed, and those looking to relocate to an area with much higher housing prices, to name just a handful of different circumstances.
We believe everyone has the right to own their home and as a mutual organisation owned by its members, we will continue on making what might seem impossible, possible.
Visit us in one of our ten branches, or book an appointment online. Appointments are available in person, over the phone, or via video call.