Campaign helps share ‘secret of shared ownership’
BROMFORD Homes Sales and Marketing Director Bev Hall has praised
Shared Ownership Week 2013 as a golden chance to raise awareness
about what she says is arguably the "best-kept secret" of the
property world.
It's also an opportunity, she says, for affordable housing
providers like Bromford Homes to address many of the myths about
shared ownership.
Her positive reaction to the National Housing Federation-led
campaign, which launched on Monday (March 18), is part of her
response to a question-and-answer session with the WhatHouse?
specialist new homes portal as part of its Shared Ownership Week
coverage.
In today's lively online interview, Bev answers a series of
questions about shared ownership, explains why a HomeBuy part buy-part rent property
from Bromford Homes stands out from the crowd and highlights
Bromford's Farthings development in Ketley,
Telford, as a potential WhatHouse? award-winner.

Asked why first-time buyers should consider a shared ownership
home and how important it is in helping buyers to gain a foot on
the housing ladder, Bev says: "We believe that shared ownership is
one of the property world's best-kept secrets. We need to do more,
much more, to ensure that aspiring home-owners like our first-time
buyers at The Farthings (pictured above) and even people in the
property sector understand what it is, how it works and what it can
do for many hard-pressed working people."
She also highlights a change in the demographic of our shared
ownership buyers − with many would-be buyers caught in the
so-called Generation Rent trap while
they save the tens of thousands demanded by lenders when buying on
the open market.
"More of those buyers are people who, before the credit crunch,
would probably have been able to buy outright. Now, with the
housing shortage and consumer credit squeeze, that is no longer
possible − unless, of course, they can make a withdrawal from the
Bank of Mum and Dad," says Bev.
"This is a definite trend ... In the meantime, yes, we do need
to make HomeBuy work better − most of all, we need to raise
awareness and to find a more effective way of marketing shared
ownership because most first-time buyers don't know about it rather
than design a new alternative, as has been suggested by some
critics."
Five homes sold in a single day
In her other responses, Bev highlights fresh shared ownership
success stories like the newly-launched Larks Rise,
Coventry, where first-time buyers snapped up five new homes off
plan in a single day, and Castle View,
Doxey, near Stafford, where more than a third of the part buy-part
rent homes have sold in a few weeks.
Finally, when asked which of Bromford's development stands the
best chance of winning a WhatHouse? award, she highlighted The
Farthings at Ketley, Telford.
"This is definitely one of our stand-out developments because,
from a Bromford point of view, it's pretty much got the lot. It's a
great-looking development − well designed and built to the
highest standard with many eco-friendly features such as solar
panelling and heat recovery systems by our sector-leading in-house
construction team, Bromford Developments Ltd. And I'm pleased to
say that the shared ownership homes have been snapped up by local
first-time buyers, who've
given us some really great positive feedback."
As the Q&A went online, Bev praised the time and effort put
in by the NHF and other providers so that Shared Ownership Week
2013 catches the attention of lenders, Government − and, of
course, first-time buyers.

"Shared Ownership Week is a brilliant opportunity to raise
awareness, dispel myths such as the one where many people think
shared ownership is just for key workers or people on the housing
waiting list and to share knowledge," says Bev, pictured above.
"The NHF is absolutely right in calling on continued support
from lenders and Government for this much-needed option for
aspiring homeowners who can't afford to buy on the open market.
"That's why we at Bromford are using the surplus from our open
market sales at places like Telford, Cheltenham and Kidderminster to help subsidise the cost
of building more shared ownership homes.
"We're starting 2013 with a bumper programme of shared ownership
sites − 19 in all − that
will help to meet the pent-up demand from first-time buyers across
the West Midlands and South West."
To read the full interview, go to the WhatHouse?
portal and to find out more about Shared Ownership Week go the the
NHF website.
21 March 2013