This month, we take a look at staircasing in shared ownership and some of the hidden costs shared owners may encounter.
Read on for a roundup of the latest news on shared ownership and our activities in July.
Shared ownership staircasing: how high should you go?
Staircasing is the process of buying more shares in a shared ownership home. It can reduce the rent paid to a housing provider and, in some cases, allows a shared owner to reach 100% ownership. But how far should you staircase, and what costs or risks should you consider first?
In our latest My SO Home shared ownership case study, a shared owner explains why she increased her share from 50% to 75%, before staircasing to 100% in 2026.
Her experience highlights a potential resale “danger zone”. A larger share can become difficult to sell if prospective shared ownership buyers can’t afford it, particularly if the property has risen in value since the share was first purchased. But a share below 100% may not appeal to buyers looking for a conventional leasehold home either.
There can also be hidden costs. Staircasing may involve valuation fees, legal fees, administration charges, mortgage costs and Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). In this case, delays meant the shared owner had to pay for two RICS valuations and her first mortgage offer expired.
She also hadn’t realised that buying her initial share meant losing first-time buyer status for future SDLT purposes. Nor had she understood the options for paying SDLT when she first bought her home, or how they could affect the tax due when staircasing later.
Staircasing can be the right choice for some people. But the best percentage will depend on your individual circumstances, the terms of the lease, likely future affordability, resale prospects and the full cost of each transaction. Shared owners should seek independent professional advice rather than relying on online calculators or general information for an individual tax calculation.
What happens if you can’t sell a shared ownership property?
In our June news roundup, we discussed some of the issues people can face when selling a shared ownership property.
We sometimes hear that issues with shared ownership mainly affect people in London. But that isn’t always the case.
This month, we spoke to a shared owner who’s been trying to sell her one-bedroom flat in Maidstone, Kent, since 2007.
She bought a 35% share in 2006. When she later moved in with her now husband, her landlord didn’t find a buyer during the nomination period. She says she couldn’t sell the property on the open market at the price required following a RICS valuation, while her lease initially prevented her from subletting.
The flat now has several barriers to resale. The lease has fallen below 80 years, the shared owner estimates that a lease extension could cost around £20,000, and the service charge has risen to £292 a month. She believes the high ongoing costs make the property unattractive to prospective buyers.
Her experience shows how mortgage payments, rent, service charges, council tax, valuation fees and other charges can continue to build up when a shared ownership home does not sell. Hyde Housing has declined to buy back the property.
Shared owners should not be left trapped in homes they can’t afford to keep and cannot realistically sell. We believe housing providers and policy-makers need to provide practical routes out of the scheme, including wider access to buyback in appropriate cases.
Creating a new shared ownership guide
Many thanks to everyone who completed our survey about the information people need before buying a shared ownership home.
We received 63 responses. People raised a wide range of issues, including rent increases, rising service charges, affordability, value for money, 100% liability for costs, permission fees and administration charges, understanding the lease, challenges staircasing to 100%, difficulties with resale and the feeling of being trapped.
One respondent told us:
“The most important thing to include is how the total long-term costs work — especially rent increases, service charges, major works liability, and staircasing valuation rules. People need to understand that the advertised share price is only a small part of the financial commitment.”
Another highlighted the reality of staircasing:
“I didn’t understand that staircasing depends on valuations that can go up, making it unaffordable later.”
We’re now working through all the survey responses as we develop a new shared ownership guide, created with the experiences and questions of shared owners at its heart.
SO Insights: our shared ownership buyback report
Buyback is where a housing provider buys back a shared owner’s share. It can provide a route out in cases where a home isn’t selling, but there is no automatic right to buyback and access is extremely limited.
We’ve now run four round tables with housing professionals on shared ownership buyback. We’ve also spoken to shared owners who’ve been through a buyback process or asked their landlord to buy back their home.
We’re bringing together the research, lived experience and collective insights from these conversations. We plan to launch our new SO Insights: buyback report in early September.
In the meantime, you can explore our SO Hub guide to landlords’ buyback policies and our buyback Q&A with legal experts at Womble Bond Dickinson.
Shared ownership in the House of Lords
On 20 July, members of the House of Lords voted by 232 to 146 for an amendment to the Social Housing Bill requiring the government to review shared ownership and staircasing.
The proposed review would consider the affordability of shared ownership and whether the scheme works as a pathway to full home ownership. This matters because rates of staircasing to 100% remain very low.
We support a serious review of shared ownership affordability, long-term costs and the barriers people face when trying to staircase or sell.
However, the vote doesn’t mean the amendment will necessarily appear in the final Social Housing Act. The Bill must complete the remaining stages of the parliamentary process, and its wording may change.
Shared owners win NHG service charge case
In our May roundup, we reported on Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) v leaseholders at Viridian Apartments in south London.
We’re delighted to report that the shared ownership leaseholders have won their case. NHG had sought to charge them for facilities available only to neighbouring private leaseholders, including a courtyard and other amenities they could not access.
Upper Tribunal Judge Elizabeth Cooke described NHG’s argument that the shared owners benefited simply because the facilities were well maintained for other people as “deeply unattractive”. She added: “I agree that it is nice to have one’s neighbours’ gardens well-maintained, but that does not mean one has to pay for that pleasure.”
Shared Ownership Resources founder, Sue Phillips, commented in Inside Housing:
“This case raises uncomfortable questions, not only for NHG, but for the social housing sector. Shared owners facing affordability challenges, and other problems, often encounter a ‘caveat-emptor’ culture. Yet in this case, where a headlease and shared ownership sub-lease had been badly drafted, rather than taking action against their lawyers for incompetence, NHG went after their social housing residents to recover associated costs.”
The judgment is an important reminder that landlords cannot simply pass every cost in a headlease on to shared owners regardless of what their sub-leases permit. (It also highlights how difficult and expensive it can be for residents to challenge unfair charges.)
Inheriting a shared ownership retirement home
The i Paper featured the experience of a family who inherited their mother’s Older Persons Shared Ownership (OPSO) flat but have been unable to sell it. The family reported owing £30,000 in service charges while the property remained unsold.
Sue Phillips told the i Paper:
“Trying and failing to sell an inherited Older Persons Shared Ownership (OPSO) home places financial and emotional strain on bereaved families. Housing providers should be required to buy back retirement homes if they haven’t sold on the open market, say, after 12 months.”
Families who inherit OPSO homes may be dealing with bereavement alongside mounting rent, service charges and uncertainty about resale. We believe clearer protections and a time-limited route to buyback are needed when these homes do not sell.
You can also read our Q&A with legal experts on inheriting an OPSO Extra Care home.
Stay up to date on shared ownership
In short, July has highlighted some of the hidden costs and difficult choices shared owners may face: how far to staircase, whether a larger share will remain affordable to future buyers, what happens when a home can’t be sold and what happens when service charges are disputed.
We’ll continue to develop our new shared ownership guide, complete our SO Insights report on buyback, gather evidence from shared owners and housing professionals, and campaign for fairness and affordability for shared owners.
To keep up to date, simply join our mailing list for updates, journo requests and/or fundraising appeals.
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