Refurbished shared ownership back on the menu

The Housing Corporation's NAHP Prospectus for the 2008-11 programme reverses an earlier decision that (for unknown reasons) excluded refurbished properties from shared ownership programmes. 

This means that housing associations can once again purchase property off the shelf and sell them on for low cost home ownership.  This can be a useful option in empty property initiatives.

Increasingly empty property schemes are so grant hungry compared with S106 sites in particular that investment managers under strong pressure to reduce the average grant per dwelling will baulk at the cost. Whilst empty properties sold as intermediate housing will still be relatively expensive compared with those produced on S106 sites the absolute cost will be less and that might prove decisive in accepting a bid that otherwise might be refused where an investment manager is trying to balance a strategic commitment to empty homes against budgettary constraints. Well, I'm an optimist....

Relevant sections of the NAHP prospectus are paras 102 and, in particular, 157.