Selling your Shared Ownership home
If you are thinking of selling your Shared Ownership home, you can find details about the process on this page. There is information on setting the sale price, putting your home up for sale and finding solicitors to complete the sale.
Shared Ownership ‘resales’
Selling your Shared Ownership home is often referred to as a ‘resale’. However, you are actually assigning your lease to someone else. Shared Ownership resale homes are properties that have previously been bought through the Shared Ownership scheme by an owner who now wishes to sell.
If you want to sell your Shared Ownership home, your landlord (Two Rivers Housing) has a period of time in which they can market and sell the home to another Shared Ownership applicant in order to keep the home as affordable housing. This period of time is set out in the lease.
Can I sell at any time?
Yes, you can sell your Shared Ownership home at any time to:
- buy another Shared Ownership home
- buy another home outright
- move somewhere else
However, your Shared Ownership leasehold property comes with some rules about selling. The rules are there to make sure the property is sold to someone who meets the government’s Shared Ownership criteria.
How do I start the process?
Contact us to let us know that you plan to sell your home.
Call: 0800 3160897
Email: homeownership@2rh.org.uk
If the home is jointly owned, both parties must consent to each stage of the process.
Do I need an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)?
Yes, it’s a legal requirement for marketing a home for sale. The certificate lets the buyer know how energy efficient your home is.
EPC certificates can be checked on the EPC register.
If your EPC certificate has expired, you must instruct an accredited assessor to produce one. You can find an assessor online at www.gov.uk/getnew-energy-certificate.
What price do I sell my home at?
When you want to sell your home, you’ll need to get a full open market valuation report. This needs to be done by a RICS accredited surveyor and you will need to pay for this report. You must market your home at the price set out in the report. The valuation will normally only be valid for three months.
More information on valuing your home
The market valuation report must be carried out by a surveyor who is accredited by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The surveyor needs to have local knowledge of the market. You can search for a RICS surveyor on the RICS website.
The valuation report, as defined in the RICS Red Book is used to determine whether the value of your share has changed since you bought the property, and therefore defines the price your share needs to be sold at during the initial nomination period.
Your property needs to be marketed during the nomination period at this RICS valuation figure.
If your home has increased in market value, then you will benefit from this increase in line with the amount of equity in the home you own. However, if the market value of your home has decreased, then you may receive less money than you have paid in.
If you have made improvements to your home, these will be included in the open market valuation. Improvements typically do not include general maintenance. In most cases, any home improvements must be approved by Two Rivers Housing before the work begins. Examples of these improvements include extending your garden patio or upgrading your kitchen.
Unless specified in your valuation report, your valuation will only be valid for three months.
Marketing your property
Once a valuation report is received, we can then calculate the value of your share of the home. Two Rivers Housing will produce a marketing brochure. You have the option to sell just through Two Rivers Housing or for a fee you can advertise through TwoCan.
TwoCan is our in house estate agency. The team at TwoCan provides estate agent services to assist you in selling your home and is a Shared Ownership specialist.
As it is part of the Two Rivers Housing Group, selling through TwoCan counts towards the period that your property must be offered exclusively to other Shared Ownership buyers. And, if your property remains unsold after the nomination period, you can choose to try a different estate agent or carry on marketing with TwoCan.
Home viewings
Here’s a few hints and tips on how you can prepare your home for viewings and photos:
- De-clutter – The general rule of thumb is to de-clutter but keep a homely feel.
- Keep it clean – Curtains and blinds should be open. Kitchen work surfaces and the draining board should be clear. Keep laundry out of sight and the toilet seat down!
- Dressing the house – Make the beds and remove anything that’s on radiators. Put away toys and keep clothes on hooks. Remove clutter from tables and desks. You can also lay the kitchen table for breakfast to make the home look more appealing to buyers.
- Outside – Keep parking spaces clear and the garden tidy, grass cut with no rubbish / bins on display.
What is a nomination period?
If you decide to sell your share, then Two Rivers Housing will have a period of time (set out in your lease) in which to sell your home to another shared owner.
There is a fee for this which is set out in our fees guide.
Two Rivers Housing have a minimum four-week nomination period to find you a buyer for your home from the time you approve the marketing brochure.
Who will do the viewings?
As you know your home better than we do, we recommend you carry out viewings. We will liaise with any potential buyers to arrange a mutually convenient time to view your property, or we can request that the buyers contact you directly. If you sell through TwoCan they can carry out viewing for you.
What happens if you don’t find me a buyer?
If Two Rivers Housing has not found you a buyer within four weeks from the time you approve the marketing brochure, known as ‘outside of the nomination period’ then you will have the opportunity to either instruct an estate agent to market your property, sell it privately or stay with Two Rivers Housing.
When can I offer on another property to buy?
If you plan to buy another property, either on the open market or through Shared Ownership, most estate agents will want proof that you’re ready to move forward before accepting your offer. This is called being “proceedable.”
Usually, they’ll ask to see a document called a Memorandum of Sale, which confirms that a sale has been agreed on your current home. Please wait until your buyer has signed their offer documents before making offers on new properties. We can only issue your Memorandum of Sale once these steps are complete.
Selling privately or through an estate agent
If you decide to sell your home privately or through an estate agent (other than TwoCan), there can be two ways to do this – depending on what your lease allows.
- Sell the share you already own – You can advertise and sell only your current share in the property.
- Sell 100% of the property (“back-to-back” staircasing) – If your lease allows it, you can advertise the home as if you own it outright. This process is called back-to-back staircasing.
With back-to-back staircasing, you buy the remaining shares from Two Rivers Housing at the same time as you sell the property to your buyer. The money your buyer pays for the home is usually used to cover the cost of buying those extra shares.
In both cases, you can choose your own sale price, the value of your share is no longer limited by the RICS valuation.
If you are selling 100% of the property, the staircasing element is still calculated based on the RICS valuation. If your valuation has expired, you’ll need to get a new RICS report. Your surveyor may be able to provide a desktop valuation instead. This type of RICS valuation doesn’t require a visit to your property and is typically less expensive than a full report.
Example sell 100% of the property – Back-to-back staircasing
| If RICS lower than sales price | If RICS same as sales price | If RICS higher than sales price | |
| Agreed sales price | £210,000 | £200,000 | £190,000 |
| RICS valuation | £200,000 | £200,000 | £200,000 |
| Your Share | 40% | 40% | 40% |
| Staircasing value based on RICS | 60% | 60% | 60% |
| Staircasing value based upon RICS valuation | £120,000 | £120,000 | £120,000 |
If you decide to sell only the share you currently own and you find a buyer privately or through an estate agent, you will not need to pay the Nomination Fee to Two Rivers Housing. However, you will need to pay Two Rivers Housing a resale fee.
Your buyer will need to complete an affordability assessment with your estate agent’s in-house team. This is to confirm that they meet the Shared Ownership eligibility criteria and that the property is affordable for them.
If you decide to complete a back-to-back staircasing sale privately or through an estate agent, you will not need to pay the resale fee as this is classed as a staircasing transaction to full ownership.
Instructing solicitors – Shared Ownership sale
Once a potential buyer has been fully assessed and approved, they will be formally offered the property.
Both you and your buyer will need to provide us with solicitor’s details. Please make sure that the solicitor you choose is familiar with dealing with Shared Ownership conveyancing.
Once we receive confirmation from both parties that they wish to proceed, Two Rivers Housing, or your Estate Agent, if you have instructed one, will produce and send a Memorandum of Sale to both solicitors.
This will contain details that are helpful to your solicitor during the conveyancing process. We will also instruct a solicitor as we own the unsold equity in the property. It is your responsibility to liaise with your solicitor throughout the sales process.
Instructing solicitors – back-to-back staircasing sale
Once you have accepted an offer on your property, your estate agent should issue a memorandum of sale to you, your buyer and both of your solicitors. Two Rivers Housing will need a copy of this as you will need to complete a staircasing transaction as part of the sale.
Please make sure that the solicitor you choose is familiar with dealing with Shared Ownership due to your staircasing transaction.
Two Rivers Housing will issue you staircasing offer for you to sign and return, which will allow us to instruct our solicitors. They will undertake the legal work in connection with the staircasing provisions in the lease including drafting the transfer paperwork, replying to your solicitors’ enquiries and certain provisions have been complied with.
It is your responsibility to liaise with your solicitor and your estate agent throughout the sales process.
How long will the conveyancing process take?
The legal process takes on average three to four months. However, this is also subject to whether there is a chain of sales, your buyers and your choice of completion timescales, and if you are completing a back-to-back transaction, the requirements and timescales of any external management company.
What happens on completion day?
Once a completion date has been agreed your solicitor will need to notify Two Rivers Housing’s solicitor of the intended completion date.
You must continue paying your rent and service charge as normal until you have completed. You will need to arrange for keys to be transferred to the new owner. You will need to take meter readings for your utilities and provide this to the utility company in order for them to finalise your account.
Closing and setting up new accounts
When the completion has taken place, Two Rivers Housing will finalise your rent and service charge account and set up the new leaseholder or freehold account.
A forwarding address is necessary to pay any refund of rent and service charge. You will need to make sure you have cancelled your direct debit with your bank only once you have completed.
