Leeds Building Society has launched a new savings product, the Shared Ownership Saver, designed to support shared ownership mortgage holders.
The offering is designed to accelerate the growth of members’ savings, thereby facilitating their ability to increase their ownership percentage, a process known as ‘staircasing’.
Shared Ownership Saver offers an impressive interest rate of 6%, providing shared ownership members the opportunity to speed up their ownership percentage increase.
This novel product underpins the Society’s dedication to savers and signals robust support for the shared ownership model. This scheme is seen as a lifeline for many aspiring homeowners who find the traditional route to property ownership out of reach.
The UK Government introduced an updated shared ownership model in 2021, which facilitates borrowers’ staircasing in smaller 1% increments, encouraging shared owners to grow their equity stake. With this new product, Leeds Building Society aims to boost more of its members’ staircasing efforts.
On average, shared ownership properties bought by the Society’s members are valued at around £287,700. Consequently, to increase ownership by a 1% increment, mortgage holders would need to save £2,877. A savings plan of £100 per month would see this goal reached in just over 2 years.
End-of-year research from Leeds Building Society revealed that 60% of those planning to buy within the next five years believed shared ownership could be their gateway to property ownership, with 22% saying it would have allowed them to climb the property ladder sooner.
Amid a challenging housing market and escalating cost of living crisis, the Society reported a 19% year-on-year increase in applications for shared ownership mortgages for January-May 2023. The Society also recently won the title of Best Shared Ownership Mortgage Lender at the 2023 What Mortgage Awards, a testament to their ongoing success in this arena.
Matt Bartle, director of products at Leeds Building Society, said: “At Leeds Building Society we continuously look for new ways to help people onto and up the property ladder… This new savings product launch demonstrates our commitment to helping members achieve their goals faster.”
