to ask what is meant by affordable housing on new developments

[Shr1881]

As per subject line really.

DH and I have been having a look at whether a new build is an option for us when we sell up and move hopefully next year (or this year, depending on when you are reading this!😁). A fair few plots on the online site plans are marked as “affordable housing”... what is this? Social? Shared ownership? Or something else?

Council /social housing, shared ownership

It’s housing set aside for people who really need it. The rents are a proportion of the current market rent for similar private properties. So it’s less than private rent but more than social rent - which is the lowest priced rent and set at a similar rate to council rents.

So mist expensive is private; next is ‘affordable’, then cheapest is social.

Everytime a new housing development is built, the developers have to build a certain amount of social housing too.

On our estate its housing association

For the house builder I work for, at least 10% of any development needs to be marked as affordable housing. These plots will then be bought by a housing association and it’s up to them whether it’s shared ownership/Social housing tenants.

Affordable housing usually means for rent, managed by a housing association usually.

And 'affordable' is usually defined as 80% of market value, so in some more expensive areas the rents aren't very, well, affordable...

It depends - on most new build estates it will be the planning obligation (s106) homes. These can be an Affordable tenure - Shared Ownership, Social Rent, Affordable Rent, Starter Homes, Rent to Buy (Not right to buy or Help to Buy)Shared Equity or First Homes. Which one will be set out in the s106 agreement attached to the planning notice.

You can also get Affordable housing that is grant funded through the Affordable Homes Programme - these can only be Social Rent, Affordable Rent, Rent to Buy and Shared Ownership. These cannot be s106 units.

@hotchocdrinker

And 'affordable' is usually defined as 80% of market value, so in some more expensive areas the rents aren't very, well, affordable...

That is the definition of Affordable Rent - up to 80% of Market rent inclusive of service charge.

On ours it was housing association properties and shared ownership.

In my experience, the housing association properties are usually all sat together and the shared ownership are dotted around with the private houses

Forgot to add - it the property is a rental tenure (AR or SR) then the landlord must be a Regulated Social Landlord. These can be Housing Associations, Community, For Profits, Almshouses, Councils amongst others.

If you already have a property you may well not be considered eligible for many of these schemes.