Buying a Home with us

Hellens Residential are committed to providing low cost home ownership options to help our customers get on the housing ladder. Buying a home through one of our schemes means that you will need a smaller deposit and mortgage.

Hellens Residential work collaboratively with Metro Finance who are a specialist finance company dealing with mortgages available on the market with high street lenders amongst others for Discount for Sale properties. If you are interested in the one of our Home Ownership schemes then we can put you in direct contact to discuss your options further.

We have a number of brand-new homes available for sale across the North of England.  Please look at Find a Home to Buy for all available homes. If you would like any further information then please don’t hesitate to contact us. The schemes we offer at Hellens Residential are outlined below:

 

Discount Sale

Discount Sale is an affordable housing product supported by the government. Housebuilders on new developments have to build a certain number of homes available as affordable homes. These can be to Rent, for Shared Ownership or Discount Sale.

Key features of Discount Sale

• The price quoted is the purchase price you will have to pay.
• You own your home (including the freehold) from Day One.
• There are no further payments to make to Hellens Residential.
• When / If you sell your home in the future you must sell it on at the same discount to market value at which you purchased it.

Are you Eligible?

• You must have a household income of less than £80,000 per annum.
• Have a deposit for the property.
• Be in employment and qualify for a mortgage.
• Be aged over 18 and have a bank, Post Office or building society account.
• Have savings or equity of less than £150,000 after you have purchased the home.

 

Shared Equity

With our Shared Equity scheme, you own your own home on Day one but only pay for part of the equity (usually 75%). You fund this in the normal way with a deposit and mortgage.  The remaining equity (usually 25%) is held by Hellens Residential as a second charge for ten years. After 10 years, or if you sell, the loan must be repaid in full. This is interest free and fixed at the initial purchase price.  There is no rent to pay in the meantime.

 

Shared Ownership

With shared ownership you are able to buy a designated share in your own home (usually between 25% and 75%) on a long leasehold arrangement. There is rent to pay on the share of the home that you do not own to Hellens Residential.  You can buy additional shares of the home while you are living there; this is known as ‘staircasing’.

Buying more shares

You can buy more of your home after you become the owner. This is known as ‘staircasing’.

The cost of your new share will depend on how much your home is worth when you want to buy the share.

It will cost:

• More than your first share if property prices in your area have gone up.
• Less than your first share if property prices in your area have gone down.

Hellens Residential will get your property valued at the point at which you wish to purchase more shares and let you know the cost of your new share. You will have to pay the valuer’s fee.

Selling your home

If you own a share of your home, then Hellens Residential has the right to buy it first. This is known as ‘first refusal’. Hellens Residential also has the right to find a buyer for your home should we not wish to purchase it.

If you own 100% of your home, you can sell it yourself on the open market.

Are you eligible?

You can buy a home through Shared Ownership if your household earns £80,000 a year or less and any of the following apply:

• You’re a first-time buyer.
• You used to own a home, but can’t afford to buy one now due to finances.
• You’re an existing shared owner.