Housing associations in London and the South-east have reaped the benefits of the past year's rising house prices as tenants of shared-ownership schemes snapped up the remaining portion of their homes while still able to afford them.
A number of registered social landlords have seen their proceeds from shared ownership exceed expectations by as much as 50%, althought they are reluctant to say exactly how much.

Kim Silburn, acting managing director of Boleyn and Forest – the shared-ownership arm of East Thames Housing Group in London – said: "We have had a huge increase in what we had budgeted for at the start of the year. It's caused by people desperately staircasing.

"They feel that if they don't get on the property ladder now, they won't be able to afford it."

As yet, Boleyn and Forest – which owns 1000 properties and builds around 250 each year – has not decided what to do with its windfall, but Silburn says it is hoped the money will be ploughed back into larger subsidies from the association in order to make the homes cheaper.

Steve Nunn, assistant director at Tower Homes – the shared-ownership arm of London & Quadrant – echoed Silburn's thoughts that the sector had experienced a boom this year.

However, he added that Tower anticipated that it would sell about 150 of its 2500 homes this year – up from 130 in 2001.

"Our business plan targets are just about spot on," he said. "With rising house prices we need to keep our homes as affordable as possible. We could see that people were much more interested at the end of last year as they wanted to buy their other share before prices rose too much."

Nunn said that, as a result of their prediction of an increase in staircasing from tenants, they were able to contribute more money, so that the share new tenants had to buy was as little as 25% in some cases – down from 40% to 50% last year.

n The value of social housing stock is set to soar next year as the growth in house prices filters through to the lower reaches of the housing market, according to research by consultant FPD Savills. This change will be particularly obvious in the North of the country, where prices will catch up with the South.

Source

Housing Today