High house prices across the Ryedale area means it can be difficult for local people on lower incomes to buy their own home.
What we are doing to help
We are working together with local housing associations to provide affordable homes. We are also part of the North Yorkshire strategic housing partnership which helps us to join up with our partners to tackle housing needs across Ryedale. To help with this, we have agreed a North Yorkshire housing strategy.
Affordable housing is for people who cannot afford to buy or rent a home at the market rate. It can help by giving financial support if you want to buy a home and can also provide lower cost homes for local workers.
What does affordable housing mean?
For a home to be seen as affordable, it must follow one or more of the rules below.
Affordable housing for rent
The rent must be at least 20 per cent lower than local market rents, including any service charges, or set by the Government’s rent policy for social rent or affordable rent.
The landlord must be a registered provider, unless it is included as part of a build to rent scheme.
The home has to stay at an affordable price for future tenants and any money from the sale of an affordable home must be reused to provide more affordable housing.
For build to rent schemes, most homes will be affordable housing for rent. They are often called affordable private rent.
Starter homes
A starter home is often the first home you can afford to buy. For a home to be a starter home, it must meet the description in sections 2 and 3 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
Sometimes additional rules, called secondary legislation, mean only some people are able to buy a starter home, like people with a certain level of household income.
Discounted market sales housing
These are homes that are sold at a minimum of 20 per cent below local market value, with prices set at local affordability levels.
To decide if a house can be sold at a discounted rate, we look at local incomes and compare them with local house prices. Once a house is sold at a discounted price, it should then be sold at a discount to any future buyers who meet the criteria.
Other affordable routes to home ownership
There are other ways to own your own home if you are struggling to buy a home at the market rate. These include:
- shared ownership
- relevant equity loans
- other low-cost homes for sale at a price equivalent to at least 20 per cent below local market value
- rent to buy, which includes a period of intermediate rent
How to apply to buy an affordable home in Ryedale
We advertise properties whenever they become available on our affordable homes available now page.
If you are interested in any of the homes, contact us for more specific information.
We do not have a waiting list for discount for sale, affordable rents or shared ownership homes. Just apply as soon as a property that you are interested in becomes available. Make sure you let us know exactly which property you are interested in.
Low cost home ownership options
The low-cost home ownership schemes in the Ryedale area are:
- discount for sale
- Help to Buy shared ownership
- Help to Buy equity loan
- right to acquire
How does discount for sale work?
When we give planning permission to private housing developers, we make sure that some of the houses are sold at a discounted price - the discount is usually between 25 per cent and 50 per cent. The housing developer can then sell the discounted house directly to you, as long as you meet our criteria
To qualify
Usually you need to:
- live or work in the immediate area
- have a yearly household income and savings of less than £80,000
If you have a deposit which is more than 15 per cent of the value of the property we will need to know why you are applying for affordable housing.
If you sell the property
If you sell, the original discount is passed on to the next person. That means, if you bought the property with a 25 per cent discount you can only sell the property at 75 per cent of the market value. This makes sure that the home will always be an affordable home.
Help to Buy - shared ownership
Shared ownership means you can buy a share of a newly-built home and then pay rent on the rest. Find out more about how shared ownership works on the Government website.
You can also look at the What House website. This is a free search tool showing new homes and part buy or rent homes.
Help to Buy - equity loan scheme
The government lends you up to 20 per cent of the cost of your newly-built home, so you will only need a 5 per cent cash deposit and a 75 per cent mortgage to make up the rest. You will not be charged loan fees on the 20 per cent loan for the first five years of owning your home.
The Right to Buy scheme
If you meet the right criteria, the Right to Buy scheme lets you buy your house. Although our housing stock was transferred to Yorkshire Housing (Ryedale Housing at the time), some residents in ex-council houses, who were residents at the time of the stock transfer, may still retain a right to buy. You would need to check with Yorkshire Housing.
The right to acquire scheme
If you are renting your home from a housing association and meet our special criteria, the right to acquire scheme helps you to buy your home. For more information about the scheme, visit the Government website.
Affordable housing criteria
You can find full details of the criteria for discounted sales or shared ownership here (pdf / 172 KB).
Further information
You can find helpful information on the following websites:
