Social and affordable housing tenants are now able to apply for the Right to Shared Ownership scheme.

Right to Shared Ownership allows residents to initially buy between 10% and 75% of their property, with rent paid on their remaining equity amount.

This rent is reviewed each year and can go up by a maximum of the retail price index increase over the last 12 months plus 0.5%.

The gradual buying of more equity – ‘staircasing’ – allows for eventual 100% ownership.

To apply, tenants must have been in social housing for three years, in the property they wish to enter into the scheme for a year, and said property must have been – or eventually – built under the Affordable Homes Programme between 2021 and 2026.

The government’s Department for Levelling up Housing and Communities says it wishes to open the scheme to more tenants in future.

Minister for housing Lucy Frazer says: “All hard-working families and young people deserve the chance to live in a home of their own.

“We are helping tenants to do just that by supporting them with small, manageable steps onto the housing ladder, through the Right to Shared Ownership.

“Buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions people take and this is just one of the ways we are helping more first-time buyers reach their goal.”