24 Aug Shared ownership scheme to help more people get on the property ladder in Suffolk
Bovis Homes and Linden Homes have launched a new shared ownership scheme which will help more people in Suffolk to get onto the property ladder.
Home Stepper has been set up to assist house-hunters who cannot afford to purchase a property outright by offering homes on a part-buy, part-rent basis.
The housebuilders, which are part of the Vistry Group, have teamed up with Sage Homes – the country’s largest provider of new-build affordable properties – to provide new homes through the scheme at three locations in the county.
Home Stepper will start with around 800 new high-quality homes being made available nationwide through a partnership between Sage Homes and the two housebuilders.
In Vistry’s Eastern region, Linden Homes is providing the Home Stepper offer to properties at its Oak Farm Meadow development in Stowupland, Cavendish View in Thurston, while the scheme is also available at Bovis Homes’ Grange Park, also in Thurston.
Usually, affordable shared ownership homes are in pre-determined locations agreed as part of a developer’s planning agreement with the local authority. But with Home Stepper, Bovis Homes and Linden Homes can convert a range of properties that were originally intended as open market houses and apartments into shared ownership homes – making them more affordable for people on lower incomes who are only able to put down a small deposit.
Jason Colmer, sales and marketing director at Vistry Eastern, said: “The launch of Home Stepper is a fantastic boost for some house-hunters in Suffolk – and one that has already been seen to be very successful, particularly among young purchasers and first-time buyers, as it gives them the chance to secure a new property which might otherwise have been out of their reach.
“It quite simply makes buying a new-build house from Bovis Homes or Linden Homes at one of these much sought-after developments more affordable, through a combination of smaller deposit requirements and lower monthly payments.
“The scheme is available on a varied mix of different properties at our developments in Suffolk, from two-bedroom bungalows to four-bedroom detached family houses. This means it should cater for a wide range of purchasers including growing families as well as couples and single people buying on their own.”
The scheme allows house buyers to have a share of up to 75% of their new home, on a range of two, three, and four-bedroom properties at the three developments across the region.
Iain McPherson, Chief Operating Officer at Sage Homes, said: “We’ve been able to deliver almost 12,000 affordable homes in just over five years by working closely with our partners, so I’m delighted to take this further by introducing Home Stepper.
“Our new Home Stepper scheme aims to make the Shared Ownership product available in more locations to more aspiring homeowners looking for attractive and high-quality homes to call their own.”
To find out more about the new homes on offer through Home Stepper in Suffolk, visit bovishomes.co.uk or lindenhomes.co.uk.
