Bovis Homes has teamed up with the country’s largest affordable new-build housing provider to launch Home Stepper – a new shared ownership scheme, with some of the first properties being made available in Crowthorne.
The housebuilder has joined forces with Sage Homes to provide three new homes through the scheme in Buckler’s Park.
Home Stepper has been created to help people who can’t afford to purchase a home outright get onto the property ladder by offering homes on a part-buy, part-rent basis.
The new initiative allows Bovis Homes and Sage Homes to convert open market houses and apartments into affordable shared ownership properties, if buyers can’t afford the price. This makes more homes affordable for people on lower incomes and with smaller deposits.
Alix Laflin, marketing manager at Bovis Homes, said: “Home Stepper is a fabulous new initiative, which will bring the joy of owning your own home to more people whose income may be too low for them to be able to afford to buy a house on the open market.
“We are already building 17 affordable homes through shared ownership and low-cost rental as part of the planning agreement at Buckler’s Park but now we can provide another three homes on a part-rent, part-buy arrangement.
“This trio of homes will all be two-bedroom semi-detached Blackthorn houses, which are ideal for couples or young families. The property has a modern layout with an open-plan kitchen/dining/living area downstairs with French doors to the back garden. Upstairs there are two double bedrooms and a family bathroom.
Shared ownership homes, which are typically cheaper to rent than private rentals and significantly more affordable than buying on the open market, are traditionally provided by housebuilders as part of a planning agreement with the local authority and are in pre-set numbers at designated locations.
Iain McPherson, Chief Operating Officer at Sage Homes, said: “We’ve been able to deliver almost 12,000 affordable homes in just over five years by working closely with our partners, so I’m delighted to take this further by introducing Home Stepper.
“Our new Home Stepper scheme aims to make the Shared Ownership product available in more locations to more aspiring homeowners looking for attractive and high-quality homes to call their own.”
