A Devon-based innovative approach to increasing local home ownership has seen six local families being helped onto the housing ladder.
A new partnership between Plymouth-based Rentplus-UK and local housing association, South Devon Rural, working with West Devon Council and local builders, Harrington Homes, meant six new affordable rent to buy homes were available close to the centre of Lifton. Under the model, private finance funds new affordable housing at no cost to the local council. The housing association also benefits from a new rental income stream, in return for taking over local management of the tenancies.
With just four weeks until Christmas, Sir Geoffrey Cox MP joined with Cllr Caroline Mott, Mayor of West Devon and Lead Member for Built Environment and Christine Candlish, CEO at South Devon Rural Housing to welcome the new residents into the homes they will be buying.
The homes consist of two 2-bed houses and four 1-bed flats. All homes have been allocated and tenants are starting their home ownership journey by moving into their brand-new homes without paying any upfront deposit. They will pay an affordable rent (80% of market rent) for an agreed period, living in the home that they will one day own whilst they save up to buy it. Each family has previously lived in or have connections to the area.
By paying a below market rent they can save more each month. At the outset, they choose whether to buy their home after 5, 10, 15 or 20 years. They move in with no deposit and when they come to purchase, Rentplus will gift them 10% of their home’s value to add to their savings and reduce the mortgage they need. They will buy their home using a high-street mortgage and then own 100% of it as if they had bought on the open market.
At the event, Robin Falle, Regional Director for the West of England at Rentplus, said: “Affordability is an issue across the country. We’re excited be working with South Devon Rural and West Devon Council to offer local home for local people, enabling hard working people to stay living in the communities they grew up in. It is good to be here today to meet the tenants, hand over their keys and to wish them all the best in their new home.”
Christine Candlish, Chief Executive at South Devon Rural, commended all parties for the partnership and said: “One of the things that excites us about working with Rentplus is the way it fills a gap in the market, particularly in small rural villages where people want to stay living in their communities, but cannot afford to. With Rentplus they can stay living locally, pay an affordable rent, build their deposit, and buy. They never have to move again if they choose not to.
“We’re excited about future opportunities, and we all wish our tenants picking up their keys today every luck and happiness in their new homes”.
Cllr Caroline Mott, Mayor of West Devon added: “This is the council’s sixth scheme with Rentplus. We need more schemes to get affordable housing into our local communities. Giving local people the chance to buy a home in these villages is crucial to the future of our rural communities. We are working with partner agencies as we want to see more schemes like this come to fruition.”
Sir Geoffrey Cox MP said: “Partnership such as this have an important part to play in enabling more people to own their homes. Providing people with somewhere to call their own is the single most important cause of the time. Talking to the people moving in today I can see how much it means to them to have a place of their own that they will someday own. Giving people the chance to own their home is true Levelling Up. Schemes such as Rentplus assist in this and I hope there are more to come.”
Declan and Georgina Howarth are amongst the first residents to move in to their new Lifton homes. Not needing a deposit to move in is a real bonus, they told us. “We’re really excited to be moving in. We’ll be paying an affordable rent, cheaper than local rents, which means we can save our deposit and get on the housing ladder earlier than we expected thanks to the Rentplus scheme.” The young family are excited to be in for Christmas. “Firstly, we’ll get the carpets put in next week, then the Christmas tree goes up!”
Sir Geoffrey, Cllr Mott and Christine Candlish also planted a sweet cherry tree, part of the Rentplus commitment to plant trees for the late Queen’s Jubilee Canopy.
Brand new affordable rent to buy homes are ready for aspirant homeowners in Longframlington.
There are a selection of four 2 bed apartments and five 3 bed homes, with rents between £500 to £680pcm.
Tenants move in with £0 deposit and can buy 100% of their home at years 5, 10, 15 or 20 and will receive a 10% gifted sum from Rentplus.
Rentplus turns renters into homeowners. More information here.
Dr Nik Johnson, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Jonathan Djanogly, MP for Huntingdon and Cllr Sam Wakeford, Executive Councillor for Jobs, Economy and Housing at Huntingdonshire District Council, visited Alconbury Weald on 4 November 2022 to celebrate the completion of 22 affordable new homes for first time buyers in Huntingdonshire, made available thanks to Rentplus-UK’s innovative affordable rent to buy scheme. The homes are part of the celebrated Urban and Civic site which received funding from the Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority, and they include 8 x 1 bed flats, 11 x 2 bed flats and 3 coach houses. All homes have been allocated and tenants have moved in.
With the average house price for first-time buyers in Huntingdonshire coming in at over £261,000, many working families on lower incomes are locked out of home ownership. The majority can’t save a deposit, even though they could afford the monthly mortgage repayments. Under Rentplus-UK’s model, 22 families, the majority of whom are key/essential workers and nearly half drawn from the emergency services or armed forces, have been able to move into a brand new home without the need for an upfront deposit. Each family has previously lived in or have connections to the area.
Under the model, private finance funds new affordable housing. Those moving in pay no upfront deposit; they rent their home paying an affordable rent for between 5 and 20 years whilst they save and build a strong credit rating. When ready to buy, Rentplus-UK gifts them 10% to put towards their savings for the deposit.
Speaking at the event, Jonathan Djanogly MP confirmed that it remains one of the Government’s top priorities to enable more people to own their homes, and schemes such as Rentplus have an important part to play in this. Commenting, Jonathan said: “Both the affordability and natural beauty of Alconbury and its surroundings makes the area an attractive prospect for those looking to get onto the property ladder. It is, however, crucial that homes built within our local housing market remain affordable and accessible for local people. Schemes such as Rentplus assist in this and so I warmly welcome their participation in our community.”
Dr Nik Johnson, Mayor of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority added: “Now, more than ever, affordable housing is crucial to our communities. People deserve to be able to get onto the housing ladder, and this collaborative effort from Rentplus, Huntingdonshire District Council and the Combined Authority shows what can be done when we’re all working compassionately together to deliver a much-needed project. It’s wonderful to see so many families – including many key workers – starting their home ownership journey, and I hope to see more projects like this from Rentplus in the future.”
Cllr Sam Wakeford, Executive Councillor for Jobs, Economy and Housing at Huntingdonshire District Council commended all parties for the partnership approach and said: “As a council, we will explore future opportunities to give local people the chance to own their own home. Affordable homes are a vital part of creating healthy spaces and communities around Huntingdonshire and we are looking forward to the possibility of helping local people onto the housing ladder in their area.”
John Walton, Regional Director for the East of England at Rentplus, said: “Affordability is an issue across the country. Rentplus is an affordable rent to buy option which removes the deposit barrier – the biggest barrier to homeownership across the country. This scheme will make dreams a reality for people in Huntingdonshire. Rentplus changes lives.”
The first residents to move into the Rentplus Alconbury Weald scheme were 22-year-old Sophie and David who have always known that they wanted to own their home. “Rentplus has given us that opportunity earlier than we expected. We thought we would have to wait years until we’d saved a deposit. We are paying affordable rent, cheaper than local rent here, and that is allowing us to save. In five years we will be on the housing ladder thanks to this Rentplus scheme. The apartment is everything we wished for.”
Photo shows partners who joined the official cutting including (l-r) John Walton, Jonathan Djanogly, Dr Nik Johnson and Cllr Sam Wakeford, with Rentplus Area Director Julie Abbey-Taylor in the front row.
More information here Alconbury Weald Leaflet 29112021.
Rentplus has contributed to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry on Affordable Homes. This has now been published. In the evidence, we said that, from our discussions with investors, we know that there is strong and widespread interest in investing in the affordable housing sector. There are billions of pounds waiting to be unlocked if local government was more amenable to accepting institutional investment and if the Government did more to encourage local authorities to do so and break down the existing cultural barriers.
Rentplus believes that the government should be actively encouraging local authorities to embrace and seek innovation and alternative funding structures to ensure that sufficient affordable housing is delivered in the areas where it is most needed.
Read further: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/111468/pdf/
Brand new affordable rent to buy homes are almost ready for allocation in a first for Mid-Sussex.
The lovely three and two bed houses in Copthorne Road, Felbridge, will see rents between £950pcm and £1140pcm inclusive of service charge.
Priority is given to tenants living in a local Housing Association property in the Mid Sussex District (first priority) or those registered on the MSDC Common Housing Register (second priority).
Tenants move in with £0 deposit and can buy 100% of their home at years 5, 15, 15 or 20 and will receive a 10% gifted sum from Rentplus.
Rentplus turns renters into homeowners. More information here.
The first sales of Rentplus homes to its tenants, turning renters into homeowners, was the focus of a case study in an article originally published in the Local Government Association’s first magazine and appears courtesy of the LGA.
The Plymouth homes were some of the first schemes to see tenants move in with no deposit and then start to buy 100% of their home.
With the funds they had saved since 2016, together with the 10% deposit that Rentplus gifted them, some tenants had as much as 25% equity in their home from day one, needing just a 75% mortgage on the property.
Thank you to Cllr Smith for the case study and to all the officers and members at Plymouth City Council, and Tamar Housing (now Willowtree) for the support and for being part of this extraordinary journey.
This was just the start of something special.
Rentplus-UK is seeking a Housing Officer.
You will support the effective operational management of the Rentplus residential portfolio. Work effectively with our RP partners, managing agents and head landlords. Assist the monitoring and managing the performance of our RP partners, managing agents, sales agents and other stakeholders. And support the successful sale and disposal of Rentplus residential assets. Preferably based in our Plymouth office but we also have an office in Milton Keynes.
If you have experience in Property or Leasehold Management and/or Affordable Housing, please get in touch.
Job Description for the role is available here.
Closing date will be 14th September.
“Rentplus sounds too good to be true.” This was the response from solicitors who carried out the conveyancing for the buyers of the first Rentplus homes.
These thoughts were also shared by Manoj and Mary when they first heard about Rentplus five years ago. The couple struggled to save for a deposit to own their dream home whilst living in a small flat with their children, whilst paying high private rent.
Learn more through our case study
This week, local MP Lee Rowley joined leader of the council Cllr Nigel Barker to celebrate a new partnership – the first of its kind in North East Derbyshire. The two met some of the tenants who are moving into their new homes later this month.
Rentplus-UK, the award winning affordable rent to buy provider, is working with North East Derbyshire District Council to offer the new homes on the Woodhall scheme at Clay Lane, Clay Cross.
Steve Collins, CEO of Rentplus explains why Rentplus is needed. “With the average house price for first-time buyers in North East Derbyshire over £211,000, many working households on lower or middle incomes are locked out of home ownership as they are unable to save enough for a deposit, even though they could afford mortgage repayments.
“Our affordable rent to buy provides a much more accessible route onto the housing ladder for those on lower and middle incomes than Shared Ownership as it doesn’t require any upfront deposit. our scheme completely removes the deposit barrier, opening up home ownership to renters living or working in the area.
“Rentplus turn local renters into homeowners.”
Tenants move in without paying an initial deposit and then rent their home at an affordable rent (which includes all repairs and service charges) for between 5 and 20 years whilst they save. When ready to buy, they receive a gifted deposit of 10% from Rentplus towards their savings. Unlike Shared Ownership, tenants purchase their full home.
Funded by institutional investment, new homes are bought from developers either as part of their affordable housing agreement or outside of it. By injecting additional private funding into the affordable housing sector, councils can focus existing grant funding on delivering more homes for social rent.
Over 60 local authorities are already offering Rentplus. across the country and a similar scheme in Bolsover opened in 2022.
Across the country, the majority of Rentplus residents are key or essential workers, and this is true of the Clay Lane residents too. All have a local connection, living and working locally.
North East Derbyshire District Council Leader, Councillor Nigel Barker said, ”I’m delighted we’ve offered such a fantastic scheme to some of our wonderful residents, who will be moving in to these brand new houses in the coming weeks. We’re committed to offering our residents new housing solutions, not only here but in the years to come.”
MP Lee Rowley has also welcomed the scheme. “I’m very impressed with what I have seen today and I’m looking forward to seeing people move into their Rentplus home. The key thing is to give people choices: whether to rent or to buy, or something in-between. What’s so good about this is that it allows people to become homeowners in the medium or long term but doing it in a way that helps people in the short term.”
Rentplus and North East Derbyshire District Council are currently looking for more housing developments where Rentplus can be offered.
The latest Rentplus film was premiered at the Local Government Association annual conference at the end of June. It is the third in a series of films outlining the journey of Rentplus from its start, to proving the model works, and how Rentplus is turning renters into homeowners.
Rentplus founder, Rich Pillar talks about how Rentplus was designed to help people on lower and middle incomes. It was targeted to help those unable to save the large deposits required to get onto the housing ladder.
In 2016, the first Rentplus tenants moved into their homes in Plymouth and Sherborne. In 2021 they moved from being renters to homeowners. Rentplus sold 100% of the homes scheduled to be sold to tenants at the end of the first 5 year period.
Those new homeowners are now buying 100% of their homes through high street mortgages. Because they paid affordable rent, most were able to save significant sums and these, together with the 10% gifted deposit from Rentplus, gave some tenants an immediate 20/25% equity in their homes.
Rich said: “I am immensely proud of the model we created because 100% of all our people who planned to buy after 5 years are now homeowners. We’ve just been the surrogate bank of mum and dad,” he added.
The film also pays tribute to two councils – Plymouth City and Dorset Councils -and Tamar Housing. They were the torchbearers for the innovative new scheme and instrumental in proving Rentplus works!
In the film, Plymouth City Councillor Rebecca Smith talks about how Rentplus adds value: “Councils like Plymouth do not have a ready pot of money to be building houses itself.
“The challenges Plymouth faces are not unique. Plymouth has done a lot of the groundwork which will help this scheme embed within your community.
“We have no reservations in encouraging other local councils to do what we have done.”
Rentplus is working with councils across the country to help people achieve their homeownership dream.
Rentplus turns renters into homeowners.
You can watch the film here https://vimeo.com/723793579