Affordable housing in the Ryedale area

Find out how to access affordable housing, the different types and how to apply.

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:

Affordable housing criteria

Selection criteria for discounted sales

Discounted sale properties are those where, under section 106 of permitted planning guidance notes 3, local authorities are able to require developers to sell an agreed number of properties at a discounted sale price to housing associations.

Planners generally stipulate that such properties should be sold at a discount and that subsequent re-sales should be restricted to the same percentage of the current open market value.

The section 106 agreement may contain few, if any, restrictions as to who should be allowed to buy these properties, or may contain very detailed eligibility criteria.

In order to ensure that discounted sale properties are sold to the client groups for which the scheme is intended, listed below are key factors which we will take into account when assessing eligibility and priority.

Eligibility for a discounted sale home

To be considered for a discounted sale home, a prospective purchaser must:

  • be unable, for financial reasons, to buy outright
  • fulfil any criteria imposed by the section 106 agreement
  • be purchasing the property as their only home

In addition, they should fulfil one or more of the following criteria:

  • be resident within the local authority area or be moving into the area to take up employment in the area
  • be a key worker moving to or living within the local authority area, for example, teachers, NHS employees, police or other emergency services, employees in key local industries including construction, catering, local government, civil service, retail and agriculture

Selection

Following confirmation of eligibility, the following points will be awarded to applicants in order to assist in the selection process:  

  • first-time buyer - applicant not currently owning any property: 10 points
  • reseller - selling property but with limited equity available: 5 points
  • resident in area - already living in local authority area: 10 points
  • moving into area - currently living outside of the area and wishing to take up employment: 5 points
  • key worker -    see eligibility details:10 points
  • families - families with children will be allocated 5 point per child, to a maximum of 15 points     
  • homeless - if you are referred to us by the local authority as being statutorily homeless or potentially homeless within the area, or if you are homeless but outside the local authority’s responsibility: 20 points or 15 points
  • sharing -  if you are sharing with people other than your immediate family, or if you are sharing with your immediate family: 10 points or 5 points
  • overcrowding - if you are living in overcrowded conditions: 5 points per bedroom lacking
  • living in own self-contained accommodation - if you occupy your own self-contained accommodation, with no overcrowding/sharing: 2 points

Housing need and bedroom need are also factors in the allocation process, with the properties going to those most in need and meeting the bedroom requirements as near as possible.

Where one or more applicants have the same points score, housing need and bedroom requirements, allocation will be made by date of application.