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Housing associations report a spike in shared ownership demand since lockdown
Housing associations in England have seen major surges in shared ownership enquiries and sales since the coronavirus lockdown, with some reporting a three-fold increase in enquiries.
Aster Group, which is considered a sector leader in shared ownership, told Inside Housing it saw a spike in interest in the first week of April.
Since then, enquiry numbers have consistently been three times higher than they were in March, the 30,000-home landlord said.
Andrew Doylend, regional managing director for the East at 45,000-home Orbit, said: “We have seen a high volume of sales for our shared ownership properties since April 1 and particularly since our sales suites reopened in May.
“Website traffic to our shared ownership pages has doubled, compared to the same period last year, and the overall level of enquiries are up.”
He suggested that changes in the mortgage market, changing spending habits during the pandemic and an increasing desire to stop sharing homes with family and friends were behind the heightened demand.
In early April, several major lenders withdrew high loan-to-value mortgage products as a response to the COVID-19 crisis – reducing the options available for new buyers unable to put down big deposits.
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Adrian Plant, shared ownership director at Leaders Romans Group, which runs sales and marketing services for several housing associations, said his team has received “record levels of shared ownership enquiries” during the pandemic – with numbers since March double those in the previous six months.
He added: “While in lockdown, whether on furlough or simply working from home, people had more time on their hands; they were able to really assess their living situation, and their finances.
“Perhaps they spent lockdown with their parents and decided it was time to fly the nest.
“Or perhaps they spent lockdown working from their rented home in the city, and realised that they no longer needed to be close to their office, so decided it was time to take that initial step onto the property ladder.”
Jim Munson, head of marketing at Notting Hill Genesis, said: “We’ve seen a big spike in shared ownership interest in the last few months in both leads and actual reservations.
“Online, we welcomed almost 82,000 users in June and July, up 5% on the same period last year with approximately 300 leads a week in this timeframe.”
Tim Seward, director of sales at Clarion Housing Group, said: “Reservations and sales of shared ownership homes have been very strong in the last few months.
“We completed more new shared ownership homes than any other housing association in the last year and the high level of demand we have seen since lockdown shows strong demand for an affordable and successful tenure.
“At the same time there has been a longer-than-usual backlog between reservations and contracts being signed.
“We hope that over the autumn the solicitors, surveyors and lenders are all able to respond to the increase in demand and help people move into their new homes as quickly as possible.”
Despite the increased demand for shared ownership, the Regulator of Social Housing’s quarterly survey reported that the sector’s total sales receipts between April and June were 56% lower than pre-pandemic forecasts.
