Once you’ve received approval to proceed in terms of financial qualification, you can view
the property. If after viewing you’d like to proceed, we’d share your information with a tenancy reference company who’ll contact you to start the reference procedure. This reference procedure will include identification and credit checks, which might ask for a previous landlord reference.
You’ll also be required to pay a deposit and, in most cases, this is five weeks’ rent. This deposit is held in a tenancy deposit scheme, which is an independent protected holding scheme. This deposit will be returned to you once you’ve completed your shared ownership purchase.
You can start buying shares in your home after three months of renting. If, after your initial tenancy agreement ends, you’re not ready or don’t want to buy a share in your home, you can choose whether to extend your tenancy or not.
You can buy between a 25% and 75% share in your home depending on your financial circumstances. This is assessed as part of your mortgage application process. You can buy more shares in your home later.
You’ll need a minimum 5% of the share you’re buying. For example, if the full market value is £350,000 and you’re buying a 25% share (£87,500), a 5% deposit will be £4,375. For further information, please talk to your mortgage advisor or your mortgage lender. Some lenders may have slightly different deposit requirements.
The only fee charged by Citra during the buying process is the engrossment fee for the creation of the legal contracts. This is £150 (£180 inclusive of VAT).
There are other costs associated with buying your home – these include legal fees, mortgage arrangement fee (if applicable), mortgage valuation fee, mortgage product fee (if applicable) and Stamp Duty. You may have to pay a deposit for your tenancy agreement.
No. You can’t own another property when you’re buying a home through Pathways. If you have a property that you need to sell to buy your home with us, you’ll have to complete on the sale before your purchase with us can complete.
All shared ownership properties, both flats and houses, are sold as leasehold. For houses, once you own 100% of your home, your property will become freehold, and the title will be transferred to you. Flats will remain leasehold.
There’s no upper income limit as there is with traditional shared ownership. What you can buy and how big a share will be worked out as part of your financial assessment for your mortgage application.
No. You will be assessed on your financial circumstances, and this will then indicate what size property you can purchase.
No. You can choose to apply for your mortgage directly with the lender.
An independent mortgage advisor can provide mortgage advice and guide you through the process; however, they’ll charge you a fee for this. You’ll pay this on completion of your mortgage application. There’s no fee for the financial assessment.
You don’t have to be a UK citizen, but you do need the right to live in the UK.
Yes. Buying more shares is known as ‘staircasing’ and you can buy a minimum of 10% at a time until you own 100% of your home. You’ll need to instruct a solicitor to prepare the legal documents for you and there’ll be an engrossment fee to pay each time you staircase. (This is for the creation of the legal contracts and is £180 inclusive of VAT.)
As you buy more shares in your home, the rent will go down. Once you’ve bought all the shares in your home, there’ll be no rent to pay.
Service charges are payments collected for the upkeep of the communal areas, both internal and external. This usually covers things like lift maintenance, commercial window cleaning and maintaining communal gardens. Sometimes it includes a sinking fund collected to help with the future cost of major repairs.
If you’ve bought a house, this will cover the estate management costs, which can include landscaping, play areas, street lighting and drainage. You’ll have a full breakdown of your service charge at the beginning of the buying process.
As a leaseholder, you’ll be responsible for paying both your mortgage and your rent. You’ll also continue to pay for any utilities bills that were previously included in your rent, including Wi-Fi and service charges.
Yes. Your buildings insurance will be included in the service charge until you staircase to 100% ownership.
YOUR HOME IS AT RISK IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR OTHER LOAN SECURED ON IT.