Shared Ownership is a great option with incredible benefits for those struggling to save a large deposit. It's been helping people buy a share in their home for nearly 50 years. Why has Shared Ownership stood the test of time? Unlike buying somewhere on the open-market, you don’t need to find a deposit for 100% of the property price. You will purchase a share of the property, which is usually anywhere between 25% and 75%, and pay rent on the remaining share. In many cases, you’ll only need a 5% deposit of the share you’re purchasing.
VIVID has helped thousands of customers become shared-owners. Let the next person be you!
You can apply if your household income is £80,000 a year or less and you can’t afford to buy a suitable home on the open market.
If you’ve never owned a home before, Shared Ownership’s a fantastic opportunity to get on the housing ladder and it’s also a great option if you’re in one of the following groups:
• You’ve owned a home before, but can’t afford to buy one now
• You’re forming a new household (for example, following a relationship breakdown)
• You’re an existing Shared Owner and want to move to a new home
• You own a home, but can’t afford to buy a new one that suits your current needs
If you own another property in the UK or abroad, you’ll need to sell this at the same time as buying your new Shared Ownership home. So if you’re a homeowner, we’ll ask you to upload a copy of your offer letter or memorandum of sale when you apply, to confirm your property’s under offer.
For some homes priority may go to applicants who are employed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), or it might be based on your local connection to the area, such as already living or working there. You can check on the property pages or with your Sales Officer for the developments you like.
There are 3 main stages that you’ll go through to apply for your new home with us:
All our available homes can be found on our website, yourvividhome.co.uk – once you find a home you like, check the listings for any local connection criteria and if you meet these, fill out the online application form.
Once we’ve received your application, we’ll check you’re eligible to apply for Shared Ownership. If you also meet the priority criteria for the development, we’ll get in touch with your next steps.
If you’re not in a priority group, we’ll let you know you’re ‘on hold’ until we can consider your application.
If you progress to this stage, we’ll ask you to speak to a Financial Advisor to talk about your affordability and confirm the share that you could buy.
There are many Financial Advisors you could use to understand and apply for a Shared Ownership mortgage on your behalf. Every Financial Advisor has a duty to find you the mortgage that’s best for you. They’ll need to keep in mind VIVID’s timescales for any mortgage that’s offered to you, as it needs to meet our sales time frame.
We’ll signpost you to our panel Financial Advisors. They’ll complete your affordability checks free of charge. If you’re offered a home and apply for a mortgage with them there will be a £250 fee, please check with your panel financial advisor when this will be payable. If you choose to use another Financial Advisor that’s absolutely fine and your choice won’t impact our decision on whether you buy a home from us.
Your Financial Advisor will provide us with your financial assessment and budget planner, mortgage decision-in-principle from your lender, or tell us if you’ll be a cash buyer. They’ll also collect your proof of address and deposit. We’ll also ask you to tell us your plot choices at this stage.
Please note: VIVID are not a credit broker.
Our panel financial advisors are:
Chartwell Funding | phone: 01454 540 500 | email: vivid@chartwellfunding.co.uk
The Mortgage Village | phone: 0330 133 7244 | email: admin@themortgagevillage.com
Apple Tree Mortgage Services | phone: 01234 237 219 | email: info@appletreemortgageservices.co.uk
If you’re successful, you’ll hear from us with the good news. Congratulations, now we’ll send you the form to reserve your new home! We’ll also ask for a reservation fee of £99, which is non-refundable and will be deducted from the monies you pay at completion. Now you’ll start the legal process and exchange within 28 days from your solicitor receiving the sales pack.
We’ll be in touch if you’re not successful this time around. We know it may be disappointing not to get your first choice property / development, but we often have more new homes released in the same area or sometimes even on the same development, so hopefully you’ll still find your ideal home with us in the future.
Shared Ownership is a really popular way to buy a home, so you might not be successful first time around, but with a bit of time hopefully you’ll find your ideal home. Keep checking our website for any more phases being released or new developments in your search area. You can also join our mailing list to make sure you’re the first to hear about our new homes.
You can read more about our approach in our Sales policy, in our policies.
Here’s some helpful guidance videoswe’ve made with property expert, Phil Spencer, where he talks about Shared Ownership and our application process.
You can learn more in our useful guide Key Information about Shared Ownership and how it works. (Please note; this document mentions RPI (Retail Price Index) and some schemes may change to CPI (Consumer Price Index) in the future. More details about costs and the lease for the property you’re considering, are available to download on the ‘Key information’ button on our property pages.
You can’t sublet (rent out) your entire home unless you either:
• own a 100% share; or
• have our permission in exceptional circumstances* and have your mortgage lender’s permission if you have a mortgage
You can rent out a room in your home, but you must live there at the same time and you’ll need to check with your lender if you have a mortgage.
*An example of an exceptional circumstance for sub-letting could be if you're a serving member of the armed forces, and you're required to serve away from the area where you live for a fixed period.
All homes that are bought through Shared Ownership are leasehold. This means that you own your share of the home, but the land that you home is built on is owned by the freeholder – which in this case is VIVID. The length of the lease is outlined in your lease which you'll receive from your solicitor. It could be 125 years, or in some cases, 250 years.
If you decide you want to ‘staircase’ so that you own 100% of your home, you’ll no longer have any rent payments to VIVID; fantastic! Just remember that you might still be a leaseholder though (especially if you’re in a flat) so monthly service and/or management charges will still apply.. Its important at this stage, you check with your sales officer to confirm.
If you live in a house and want to have the freehold once you own 100%, just let us know. Remember you’ll then need to arrange your own buildings insurance as up until then, it was included in your monthly rent and service charges.
In some occasions there may be restrictions to staircasing to 100%. This is usually in place so that the property remains as a shared ownership home so that if/when you come to sell your home, it’s offered as an affordable home again like when you first purchased it! Staircasing restrictions are confirmed in your lease, but check with your sales officer to confirm too.
We’ve appointed an independent surveyor to snag your property already, and they’ve agreed that the property meets the standards agreed between us and the developer. There is no need to arrange for your own snag of the property as we’ve already done this for you! If you do have anything to report when you visit for your viewing, please send us a short description of the issue along with a photograph so that we can look in to it.
If you spot anything that looks like it might still need to be checked once you move in to your property, please report it to us straight away and we’ll check it has been picked up in the Employers Agent’s report already. They’ll always assess the issues raised but please bear in mind it may not be accepted - for example if it’s deemed as cosmetic. We’ll let you know if so.
We also have some articles to read with more information about defects, and a video to tell you how you can report defects: Take a look here: What's a defect? | New build homes | Maintaining my home | VIVID (vividhomes.co.uk)
Your defects period will start when VIVID take handover of your property and ends 12 month after this date. Please note: this does not mean 12 months of you moving in, it will be from the date we took ownerhip of your home.
If you find something you think is a defect, please make sure you always get in touch with us, not the developer directly. It’s our job to look after you and liaise with the developer on your behalf.
To report a defect, please visit https://www.vividhomes.co.uk/contact-us for ways in which you can get in touch.
We advise you not to store bulky or precious items in the lot space as it wont be boarded out for storage and filling this space can affect the airflow and create damp issues. In apartments, you legally only own up to ceiling height and therefore access to the loft space is for access to services / maintenance purposes only.
In new build Shared Ownership, yes pets are welcome. For older properties (resales) Please always check your lease for any restrictions regarding pets as you will usually be asked to request consent from us beforehand.
There are many financial advisors you could use to understand and apply for a Shared Ownership mortgage on your behalf. Every financial advisor has a duty to find you the mortgage that’s best for you. They’ll keep in mind VIVID’s timescales for any mortgage that is offered to you, as it needs to meet our sales timeframe.
We’re signposting you to our panel advisors. They’ll complete your affordability checks free of charge. If you’re offered a home and apply for a mortgage with them there will be a £250 fee, please check with your panel financial advisor when this will be payable. If you choose to use another financial advisor that’s absolutely fine, and your choice won’t impact any VIVID decision on whether you buy a home from us.
Please note: VIVID is not a credit broker.
Our panel financial advisors are:
Chartwell Funding | phone: 01454 540 500 | email: vivid@chartwellfunding.co.uk
The Mortgage Village | phone: 0330 133 7244 | email: admin@themortgagevillage.com
Apple Tree Mortgage Services | phone: 01234 237219
It is your responsibility to pay for the repairs of your home. Your contract / lease defines this. The good news is that your home comes with a 10 year warranty (sometimes 12), for any major structural damage. This is called an NHBC or LABC warranty. Please note any excess that needs to be paid for any work undertaken will be your responsibility to pay. Please also note that the excess limits increase per annum.
Snags are typically minor cosmetic imperfections which are spotted by the Employers Agent and VIVID Project Managers when they inspect our homes. The building contractor will try to resolve these prior to the practical completion of the home, and ahead of the customer moving in. A defect is typically something that is damaged or broken.It can also be something that has not been fitted properly or looks unfinished and these need to be reported to us, should you come across them in the first 12 month period.
We don’t currently have electric vehicle (EV) charging points installed in the parking spaces for most of our homes. In some cases, for example where you have driveway parking adjacent to your home, it may be possible to install a charging point at your own cost. Please get in touch with us to discuss your property, as we’ll need to check if it’s possible and give you permission to make these changes if your parking space is suitable.
A defect is anything fitted in your new build home that hasn’t been done to a good standard. Examples of a defect can be, faulty window handles, leaking taps, leaking pipework, a faulty front door lock, or faulty electrics.
All standards are based around the NHBC guidelines. Please check these before you report any issues, as if it meets the NHBC standards the developer doesn’t have to re-attend.
You can work this out by looking at the site plan, which will either be in the brochure or sent to you by email. The conveyancing plan for your new home will also tell you this information.
You will hear us use the terms handover date and completion date. There is a difference between the two terms.
Handover date means the date the developer give VIVID the keys to the property.
Completion date means the date VIVID give the keys to you (once the legals are done and the purchase price has been paid)
As a shared ownership leaseholder it’s up to you to service your boiler. You need to do this at least once a year. It'll say this in your lease.
This varies from scheme to scheme, and you’ll need to ask permission if you want to install one. There will be more information on this in your Home User Guide when you move in.
Your Memorandum of Sale and your Conveyance plan will show you whether you have been allocated (right to use) a parking space, whether it is demised to you or whether all parking spaces in the vicinity of your property are free for all residents to use. The number of parking spaces you get is set by the local authority planning department
Please note, there is no electric vehicle (EV) charging point installed in most parking spaces, please check with the Sales team if you need more information.
Turf is a gifted item (not part of your purchase price) and so won't be covered under the defects warranty. Turf can get drier in the summer months, especially during extremely hot weather spells. We will always request to have turf laid after you move in during extreme weather conditions so that you can water it daily, however that's not always possible. If turf is dry when you move in, we recommend you watering it once or twice daily, and re-seeding where you think its appropriate.
Please note: the presence of leather jackets, caterpillars, moths or butterflies in gifted turf will not be treated by us or the developer
No, it may not be laid yet, especially in warmer summer months. In summer, we wait for you to move in before we lay the turf, this way we ensure that the turf does not dry out in hotter weather.
If you want to make any structural changes to your home, such as removing an airing cupboard, you'll always need to speak to us first as structural changes need to be approved to ensure that you don’t invalidate the warranty. Shared Ownership homes come with a 10 year warranty (sometimes 12), to cover any major structural damage over that period. This is called an NHBC or LABC warranty. Please note any excess that needs to be paid for any work undertaken will be your responsibility to pay. Please also note that the excess limits increase per annum. You should also always check the terms of your lease before carrying out more major DIY projects in your home.
A service charge is a payment made to us by a customer to cover the cost of providing services such as repairs, maintenance, improvements, insurance and management costs.
You may have bought 25% share of your home, but you will still need to pay 100% of the service charge each month. Your service charge may increase or decrease over time, but we’ll contact you regarding this in advance if this is the case.
The total you pay can vary depending on how much it has or will cost us to provide these services, and customers’ individual charges may vary according to the services they receive.
The service charge figure in the first year is based on assumptions and VIVID’s experience of managing similar homes. This figure will be reviewed annually and may vary from the original estimate. End of year accounts are published in September, showing the actual expenditure and adjustments made for any shortfall or surplus and if we get the information earlier, we’ll review and update you during the conveyancing process too.
Usually, yes. We call this staircasing! You'll need to check any conditions or restrictions around staircasing in your lease.
For more information about staircasing, take a look at our 'Staircasing' leaflet here
Unfortunately, no, you can’t. To keep costs down we buy kitchens, bathrooms, carpets and other things in bulk, often many months ahead of time, as part of the contract between us and the builder.
Shared ownership is so popular that we usually sell all our homes off plan, even before they’ve finished being built. This means when you apply and reserve your new home, it may still be a building site, and won’t be at a stage when it’s safe for you to view it. But as soon as it is ready, we'll let you know and you can have a look.
We hope you have a great experience with us, but we know sometimes things can go wrong and you may want to raise a complaint with us.
You can read more on our complaint policy and how to contact The Housing Ombudsman here Our policies
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