Your options
Council shared equity
Formerly known as Discount Market Sale, this is a low-cost home-ownership product where you buy a new build property at a discounted price. The discount will vary depending on the property and sale price. This is possible because when the development was negotiated with the council, this discount was agreed. It's to help low and middle-income earners get onto the property ladder.
The purchaser buys the percentage of the property available after the discount. When s/he sells the property, it has to be sold at this same percentage of the property value, which must be agreed by us. Applicants will need a mortgage and/or savings to cover the discounted price of the property.
Apply to buy the remaining share, or sell, your discount market sale property
If you are the owner of a discount market sale property and want to resell or purchase the remaining share of your property, please see apply to buy the remaining share, or sell, your discount market sale property
Shared ownership
This enables residents and workers of the borough to buy a share of a newly-built property
You buy between 25 and 75 per cent of a home and pay rent on the remaining share.
Over time you can buy more shares in the property (a process known as stair-casing) and in doing so, you will reduce the amount of rent you pay.
You can keep buying shares in the property until you own the property outright. Once this happens, you stop paying rent.
If you wish to sell the property at any time, you keep the percentage of the property’s current market value that you own.
Resales
These are previously owned Shared Ownership or Council Shared Equity homes that were built and sold in the past and are now being resold by their current owners.
Intermediate rent
Intermediate rent offers you the opportunity to rent a property at less than the market value. The rent charged is normally approximately 20 per cent lower than what you would expect to pay for a similar home in a similar area if you were renting privately.
As well as being more affordable, you have the assurance that your home is built, managed and let by a housing association.
Intermediate rent has traditionally only been available to key workers, although this choice is now available to other home-seekers who are not high priority for social rent and those who cannot afford to buy a home of their own outright but who would like to save to buy a home in the next five years.
Intermediate rented homes are usually let on an assured short hold tenancy.
The maximum Household Income is £60,000
London Living Rent
London Living Rent is a type of intermediate affordable housing for middle-income Londoners who want to build up savings to buy a home. London Living Rent provides high quality rented homes on stable tenancies, with rents based on a third of local household incomes. Money you save on rent can go towards a deposit for your own home.
To be eligible for a London Living Rent home, you must:
live or work in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham;
either have a formal tenancy (for example, in the private rented sector) or live in an informal arrangement with family or friends as a result of struggling with housing costs;
have a maximum household income of £60,000;
not own any other residential home; and
be unable to currently buy a home (including through shared ownership)
Right to Buy
This scheme offers discounts for council tenants to buy their current homes.
If you are a council tenant and who would like to buy your council property outright, you get a discount of up to £116,200 on the total value of the property. The discount increases every April, the new maximum discount effective from 6th April 2023 will be £127,940.
From 26 May 2015, the qualifying period for the Right to Buy scheme was reduced from five years to three years. This means council tenants will now need a minimum of three years of secure public-sector tenancy to qualify for the Right to Buy. However, some properties remain excluded, including those related to your employment and some housing provided specifically for older people or those with disabilities.
How to apply for Right to Buy
Before completing a Right to Buy application form, we advise you to read through the Right to Buy Guide to give you a further insight to the scheme and to use the Right to Buy calculator to check what you can afford.
If you'd like further information about Right to Buy, call us on 020 8753 6464. We are available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm or email us at h&fHomebuy@lbhf.gov.uk with subject heading 'Right to Buy'.
Leaseholder after sales
Leaseholder after sales - extending your lease, doing works and loft conversions.
Contact details for H&F Home Buy
For more information about the different products, to register an interest, or to discuss which product would best suit your circumstances, please contact us on 020 8753 6464, via email to h&fHomebuy@lbhf.gov.uk. We are available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
H&F Home Buy
3rd Floor Hammersmith Town Hall Extension,
King Street, Hammersmith,
London W6 9JU
One-to-one appointments
For a specialist one-to-one appointment with an advisor, help with solicitors and finding an independent financial advisor, call 020 8753 6464 or email h&fHomebuy@lbhf.gov.uk.
Definitions of terms used by councils, solicitors, home buyers and surveyors