Think Tank

Flat out of places to buy

I have lived in King's Cross all my life and I currently live in a one-bedroom housing association flat, which cannot be bought because it belongs to a charitable association. We are trying to start a family and the flat is on the fourth floor without a lift so the thought of living here with a baby is quite worrying.

We would really love to buy our own place though we cannot afford to buy anything on the private market in London.

The only option would be to move away from London, but I am very happy in King's Cross. I am married so, with both our salaries, we should be able to afford a social housing flat.

Do you know who I could speak to about swapping my flat for a two-bedroom social housing home in the King's Cross area that we would be able to buy?

You could try to get rehoused by another association that may (eventually) allow you to purchase the property under a voluntary purchase scheme. This scheme is purely at the landlord's discretion and you have no right to it if they do not wish to allow it.

If you are lucky, you might get rehoused in a right-to-acquire property, which is a right association tenants have on some new-build properties. You could try to transfer with another tenant who is in a right-to-acquire property or who is eligible for the voluntary purchase scheme. You could also try the Homebuy scheme, which involves associations helping people to buy on the open market to free up homes for rent.

The housing association lends money to help with the purchase of a property. Talk to your landlord to see if it operates such a scheme and whether you would be eligible.

Or consider shared ownership – check if any local associations do this. The Housing Corporation produces booklets on Homebuy and shared ownership and your housing association should have copies it can send you. If not, contact the corporation on 020 7393 2000.

Nick Murphy, Executive director, of housing, communities and regeneration at Southampton council

You could try mutual exchange, where people in different housing associations take on each other's tenancies, including any rent arrears. But given the high demand for low-cost purchases or right-to-acquire, it would be almost unthinkable that you would find someone who had that right – and wanted to surrender it to you in return for a home they can only rent. Your association may advertise exchanges through an internal system, or take a look at the national database of available homes: www.homes.org.uk.

There is also the option for formal transfer, but this would only be realistic if you had another reason for moving than simply wanting to buy – for instance if there were a serious antisocial behaviour issue that necessitated a move. But there are several avenues available to people who want to buy a flat, but can't afford to purchase one outright in the open market.

A number of low-cost homeownership schemes are currently running. They include: new-build shared ownership (buy a share and pay rent on the remaining portion – you may also gradually increase your share); shared-ownership re-sales (buy a share and rent a share of an existing shared-ownership property being sold on by its current shared owner); or Homebuy (buy a share of a home, the remaining share of which is owned by an association through an equity loan, which you can buy later or must be repaid when you sell in the future).

I would advise you to do the following:

• approach your housing association to see if it is currently running any of the above low-cost homeownership schemes
  
• ask your council for advice about other low-cost homeownership schemes available in your area through other associations.

  Your council should be able to advise which schemes you may be eligible for
  

• depending on you and your partners' jobs, you may be eligible for key-worker affordable homeownership through your local "zone agent" or housing association that markets all key-worker schemes.

  Again, your housing association or council should be able to advise on this.

  Jane Loftus, Head of information and policy at TPAS and chair of Family Housing Association