National statistics

Social housing sales and demolitions 2020-21: Shared Ownership

Updated 27 January 2022

Applies to England

1. Headline figures

From 1 April to 31 March 2021:

12,566 initial tranche Shared Ownership sales were completed by large registered providers and local authorities, a decrease of less than 1% from 2019-20

^{[footnote 1]}

An estimated 80% of Registered Provider Shared Ownership sales were to first time buyers

The completion of some fields in CORE Sales ^{[footnote 2]} is not mandatory, and some missing information on mortgage and deposit is imputed during data processing. For the purpose of this release, only sales that have no missing data following imputation in market value, initial equity stake, mortgage value and deposit are included. In 2020-21 this totalled 12,547 entries. The averages given in this section refer to the arithmetic mean unless otherwise stated.

Unless otherwise stated, values quoted in this release will report on Shared Ownership, Older People’s Shared Ownership (OPSO), Social HomeBuy Shared Ownership, Home Ownership for People with long-term disabilities (HOLD) and Rent to Buy Shared Ownership as a combined figure

2. Characteristics of Shared Ownership purchases

Shared Ownership is a scheme targeted at first-time buyers who cannot afford the full market cost of a property. In 2020-21, an estimated 80% of Shared Ownership purchases were made by first time buyers with over 72% of purchases by people under the age of 40 and 39% under the age of 30.

In 2020-21, an estimated 52% of purchases were made by one adult households, 29% made by households of 2 adults, while 13% were made by households with children.

Figure 3.1 Household composition of Shared Ownership purchases from 2009-10 to 2020-21

The average market price was £275,100, up by 3% compared to 2019-20, with a mean initial equity stake of £109,800 (41%). The average deposit was £17,700, an increase of £500 compared to 2019-20 but the second lowest value since 2013-14.

The graph below shows that over the last 12 years, the average (mean) price of Shared Ownership properties has increased from £164,600 to £275,100, an increase of 67%. Between April 2009 and March 2021 the UK house price index increased by 67%, showing that the price change of Shared Ownership properties generally tracked the wider housing market. In this same time period, the average equity percentage obtained by buyers remained relatively steady between 37-43%.

Figure 3.2 Average market value and average equity of Shared Ownership purchases 2009-10 to 2020-21

3. Delivery of Low Cost Home Ownership schemes

In the section below, the term “Low Cost Home Ownership schemes” is used as an umbrella term for Shared Ownership and Affordable Home Ownership because before 2014-15 it is not possible to separate Shared Ownership from other Low Cost Home Ownership delivery.

In 2020-21 there were 17,097 new Shared Ownership properties delivered, a decrease of 6% compared to 2019-20. Of these 17,097 Shared Ownership properties 16,225 were new build, a decrease of 9% compared to 2019-20. ^{[footnote 3]}

The graph below shows how the delivery of Low Cost Home Ownership properties has changed over the course of the last 28 years. As can be seen from the chart, since 2015-16 there was a continuous increase in the number of Shared Ownership properties delivered, with the first decrease in 5 years seen in 2020-21. This decrease may be due in part to the restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figure 3.3 Delivery of Low Cost Home Ownership properties 1990-91 to 2020-21, England

1. Figures sourced from Statistical Data Return and Local Authority Housing Statistics. These two providers do not provide full coverage of the Shared Ownership market. ↩

2. The COntinuous REcording of social housing sales is a data collection run by DLUHC to collect information on sales of properties by registered providers of social housing. It does not capture all Shared Ownership sales. ↩

3. All figures in this section are sourced from the Affordable Housing Supply statistics. ↩