Bovis Homes have teamed up with the country’s largest provider of new-build affordable homes to launch Home Stepper – a new shared ownership scheme, with some of the first properties being made available in Kent.
The housebuilders have joined forces with Sage Homes to provide a total of 74 new homes through the scheme at four locations in the county.
Home Stepper has been set up to help people who can’t afford to purchase a home outright get onto the property ladder by offering homes on a part-buy, part-rent basis.
The scheme will start with around 800 new high-quality homes being 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 Kent region, Linden Homes is providing the Home Stepper offer on six properties at its Westwood Point development in Margate and 10 plots at Ospringe Gardens in Faversham, while Home Stepper is available with 10 properties at Bovis Homes’ Beuley View in Peters Village near Wouldham and 48, two and three-bed properties at Artemis View, Thanet.
The new initiative allows Vistry and Sage Homes to convert open market houses and apartments into affordable shared ownership properties, if buyers can’t afford the price. This makes more homes affordable for people on lower incomes and with smaller deposits.
Mary McHutchison, Regional Sales and Marketing Director at Vistry Kent, said: “We have worked with Sage Homes for a number of years and it is great to be able to team up with them on Home Stepper. The idea behind the scheme is quite simple – it is to help people, who might not be able to afford to buy their own home, to get a foot on the property ladder.
“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, such as ourselves, as part of a planning agreement with the local authority and are in pre-set numbers at designated locations. However, through Home Stepper, we can now make more of our top-quality homes available for shared ownership at developments where we know buyers on lower incomes would benefit.
“At Vistry Kent, we are at the forefront of this pioneering scheme and are happy to be able to offer a collection of more than 70 new-build homes at four different locations. The range of houses and apartments, in two, three and four-bedroom designs, will help more local people in the county secure a new home close to family, friends or work.”
Iain McPherson, Chief Operating Officer at Sage Homes, 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.”
