At least 10 new family homes being offered for shared ownership in Aylesbury

At least 10 new homes are being made available on a shared ownership basis in Aylesbury, as part of a nationwide partnership between housing developers.

Bovis Homes and Linden Homes have teamed up with the country’s largest provider of new-build affordable homes, Sage Homes, to launch a new shared ownership scheme called Home Stepper. And among the first properties to be made available are 10 homes at Orchard Green, Kingsbrook.

Home Stepper has been set up to help people who can’t afford to purchase a home outright get on to the property ladder by offering homes on a part-buy, part-rent basis.

To start with, about 800 new homes will be made available nationwide through a partnership between Sage Homes and Vistry Group, whose brands include Linden Homes, Bovis Homes and Countryside Homes.

In Vistry’s Thames Valley region, Bovis Homes and Linden Homes are providing the Home Stepper offer on 10 three-bedroom houses at Orchard Green – eight Bovis Homes properties and two Linden Homes houses.

Alix Laflin, marketing manager for Vistry Thames Valley, said: “Home Stepper allows us to be able to offer more shared ownership homes so that more local people can live in a new home near family, friends and work.

“We are already providing 29 affordable homes at Orchard Green, which is a fantastic family-friendly development, and through the Home Stepper scheme we can bring the dream of home ownership within the grasp of even more families.

“The 10 Home Stepper properties, which will be semi-detached or terraced, are all energy-efficient, well-designed homes that work with the way people want to live.

“Sage Homes is the nation’s biggest provider of new-build affordable homes and we have been working closely with this highly reputable company for a number of years. It is great to be able to join forces to bring this excellent new product to the market.”

Home Stepper also allows Vistry and Sage Homes to convert open-market houses and apartments into shared ownership properties, if buyers are unable to afford the price, making more homes affordable for people on lower incomes and with smaller deposits.

Shared ownership homes, which are typically cheaper to rent than private rentals and significantly more affordable than buying on the open market, are traditionally provided by housebuilders as part of a planning agreement with the local authority and are in pre-set numbers at designated locations.

But through Home Stepper, Vistry can make more of its homes available for shared ownership at developments where it is thought buyers on lower incomes will benefit.

Chief operating officer of Sage Homes, Iain McPherson, said: “We’ve been able to deliver almost 12,000 affordable homes in just over five years by working closely with our partners, so I’m delighted to take this further by introducing Home Stepper.

“Our new Home Stepper scheme aims to make the shared-ownership product available in more locations to more aspiring homeowners looking for attractive and high-quality homes to call their own.”

You can find out more about the new homes on offer through Home Stepper at Orchard Green from Bovis Homes or Linden Homes.