Housing scheme criteria

Shared Ownership

Shared Ownership is where your clients can purchase at least 25% share of the property and pay rent for the remaining share. Your client can buy a share in a property under a lease, which could be from a registered social landlord, Housing Association or Local Authority, who will own the remaining share. They could then buy a larger share later at a price based on the value of the property at the time, a process called ‘staircasing’.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland

They'll own their share as leasehold under the terms of a Shared Ownership lease.

Scotland

They'll enter into an Occupancy Agreement with the Housing Association, who will own the remaining interest. This allows them to occupy the whole property and pay an occupancy payment. You can find the instructions to the conveyancer contained within the special conditions of the mortgage offer.

Criteria

• The Land Registry must show the legal owner of the security property to be the Shared Ownership provider. A case will not be able to complete unless this is the case.
• Your clients solicitor or conveyancer must confirm to us that the shared ownership lease meets our scheme requirements.
• Shared Ownership mortgages are available on all our standard products.
• We accept builder’s cashback and most builder incentives up to a maximum total value of 5%. See our New Build incentives section for more details.
• We won’t accept applications using certain schemes. These include Resale Price Covenant Scheme, Restrictive Covenants, Equity loan, Sheltered Housing or Right to Buy.
• We’ll consider Shared Ownership leases where your client has capped staircasing. For example, if your client has capped their maximum share limit at 80%.
• Your client must include the Shared Ownership rental figure as a monthly outgoing when considering affordability.

Maximum loan to value (LTV)

Your remortgage clients can capital raise up to 85% LTV to buy an additional share or the final share of their Shared Ownership property. This helps your clients on the road to full home ownership.

We’ll lend up to 90% LTV for your client to purchase their initial share. See the example below based on a 75/25 split (25% owned by shared ownership landlord)

• £100,000 - Full price/value
• £25,000 - Amount retained by shared ownership landlord
• £75,000 - Price/value of the share
• £67,500 (90% of £75,000) - Maximum loan available
• £7,500 - 10% minimum required deposit

For more information, please read our LTV and maximum loan size and LTV limits criteria. Please note some conditions apply.

Shared Ownership with additional borrowing

If your client wishes to include additional borrowing, we'll only consider it for the following loan purposes:

• structural and non-structural home improvements
• buy additional or final share (staircasing)
• buy out partner’s interest (non-borrower).

We won’t accept additional borrowing for debt consolidation.

Applying

Standard ownership cases

You can submit a case on NFI Online. Please ensure you select ‘Shared Ownership’ (even if your client is purchasing the final share).

Remortgage Shared Ownership cases

When keying a Remortgage Shared Ownership case, select ‘Shared Ownership’ under ownership type. This will be for all cases including those that require additional borrowing to purchase an additional share or the final share.

In the 'Loan Requirements' screen, you'll need to enter your clients estimated current condition value of the share they'll own on completion. This is calculated using the percentage share they'll own (including any new purchased share) against their estimated open market value and your clients estimated open market value in current condition. NFI Online uses these values to calculate the percentage share that your client will own.

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Forces Help to Buy

Forces Help to Buy (FHTB) helps armed forces personnel to borrow up to 50% of their salary to go towards a deposit to buy their first home or move to another property and is interest free. This all depends on assignments and family circumstances.

Your clients will be able to borrow up to £25,000 to use towards a deposit of a new home, or solicitors and agent fees. They will then pay back the loan over ten years through their monthly salary.

Please refer to the guidance on the Government website.

Criteria

• At the time they apply, your client must have completed the required length of service, have more than six months left to serve and meet the right medical categories.
• If both of your clients are in the armed forces, we’ll accept FHTB loans as deposit from both for the application.
• FHTB can be used in addition to Shared Ownership and Help to Buy: Equity Loan schemes. The loan doesn’t count towards the minimum deposit requirements.
• A maximum of two FHTB loans per application.
• Your client should apply for a FHTB loan before applying for a mortgage. Once accepted, they’ll receive a personal information note (PIN) by the Ministry of Defence with details of the loan.
• When doing an affordability calculation, it must include the monthly repayment of the loan (and the mandatory insurance payment) as a monthly outgoing.
• We won’t accept applications using the following schemes:
• Genuine Bargain Price
• Lending on negative Equity
• Restricted Resale Price
• Right to Buy

Applying

Before submitting a case on NFI Online, don't forget to read our FHTB keying guide. The guide will take you through the process of submitting your client’s application.

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Equity Share Loan (including Help to Buy Wales)

The deadline for Help to Buy Wales applications is on 31 March 2025. The deadline for completion is on or before 22 December 2025. For full guidance, visit the Welsh Government website.

Equity Share is where a third party, such as a Housing Association or Local Authority, provides a share of the property deposit as a loan.

Criteria

• Your client will need a minimum deposit of 5% of the full purchase price of the property. This must come from either of your clients’ own resources, a gift from family or friends, or a combination of both.
• There must be no requirement to repay the loan within five years and no interest charged during this period.
• Your client’s mortgage term can’t extend beyond the date that the repayment of the equity share loan first becomes due.
• We'll take the LTV based on the open market valuation of the property, not your client's share.

Maximum Equity Share Loan

An Equity Share Loan provider can provide a loan of up to 50% LTV, secured by way of a second charge. Here are the providers we accept and the maximum percentages: 

Equity Share Loan provider				Maximum loan percentage
Volume Builder i.e. regional, national				25%
National/Local Government or Housing Association				50% - regional variations apply
Help to Buy				20%

Applying

You can submit a case on NFI Online

Help to Buy Remortgage with Equity Share

We don’t accept remortgage applications when an existing Equity Share Loan will continue. You must key the existing mortgage and the equity loan in the ‘Existing Details’ screen with no balance continuing. You must select the loan purpose 'Pay off second charge'.

Where your client is paying off a Help to Buy Wales Equity Loan:

• a maximum LTV of 90% is only available if the only loan purpose selected is 'pay off second charge'.
• the external scheme type is Help to Buy Wales. The only additional borrowing available at that LTV is to pay off a Help to Buy Wales equity loan in full.

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First Homes

First Homes are discount market sale housing in England which has been developed by the government. For further information, please refer to the guidance on the Government website.

Criteria

• Your client must be a first time buyer.
• For New Build houses and flats, our scheme is available up to 95% LTV.
• Your client can't apply in conjunction with Helping Hand.
• For purchases (including first sale and all future sales of First Homes), your client must choose a home that has a minimum discount of 30% against the full market value, and have a mortgage or home purchase plan to fund a minimum of 50% of the discounted purchase price.
• For first sales, your client must have a restriction registered on the title at HM Land Registry. This is to ensure they pass on the discount and other restrictions at each subsequent title transfer. After the discount has been applied, the first sale should be at a price no higher than £250,000 or £420,000 in Greater London.
• Your client must have a combined annual household income that doesn't exceed £80,000 or £90,000 in Greater London. We base this on the tax year immediately preceding the year of purchase

You can visit our New Build hub to find our further details on acceptable incentives.

Our offer will have conditions. The solicitor or conveyancer will need to check the scheme meets our requirements. Also, local authorities may apply their own criteria. 

Applying

The process is different to a standard application and will depend on the LTV of the application.

We base the LTV for both product and credit scoring purposes on the discounted price/value, not the open market value. 

For 90% LTV or less for houses or 75% LTV or less for flats, you can submit these applications using NFI Online. The ownership type selected should be 'Restricted Resale Price'. To get the accurate LTV, make sure you correctly enter the purchase price and the full market value.

Over 90% LTV for houses or over 75% LTV for flats

You can't submit these applications using NFI Online. You will need to follow the below steps. The process is only available for First Homes cases and is all subject to eligibility. We'll decline applications for any other scheme or 'Restricted Resale Price' cases.

Decision In Principle (DIP)

You'll need to complete a DIP via NFI Online using the required purchase price and loan amount. Don't enter this as a New Build application or enter the security address. You'll need to select ‘Property not yet found’. This will allow you to get a DIP decision for your client, so you can refer the First Homes application to the Local authority.

Full Mortgage Application

Once the Local Authority have agreed for your client(s) to progress, you'll need to complete a manual application form. Find our further details on acceptable incentives.

When applying, you'll need to ensure that next to the Purchase Price in section 11 you note that this is a First Homes application. Make sure that you detail the product required in section 12.

Your client(s) must sign the application form. We'll accept a scanned signature from you.

Please submit your application via email at exceptions.manualapplications@nationwide.co.uk. Your email must have the title of ‘First Homes Application’ and include:

• your clients name
• M reference number from the DIP
• broker name and firm name
• a completed and signed Mortgage Application Form
• any supporting documents, as requested at DIP
• a copy of the Disclosure of Incentives Form referencing the First Homes Scheme and the discount
• the Local Authority Acceptance Document proving the Local Authority have checked your client's eligibility for our First Homes Scheme.

Post submission

Following submission, we'll:

• contact you with the new application number. We'll let you know if we require further information or proofs.
• instruct a valuation once the application has been keyed.

Case updates

First Homes applications will not be available to view in case tracking. For an update on the application, contact our dedicated New Build support team by emailing NewBuild@nationwide.co.uk or calling 0345 607 22 45.

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Right to Buy Purchase

If your client is a tenant of a local authority property, they could purchase the property through a Right to Buy scheme.

Criteria

Your client can borrow:

• up to 100% of the discounted purchase price
• additional amounts for home improvements and up to £500 for legal fees.

Your client can't borrow for debt consolidation. Housing Benefit can’t be used as income to support the mortgage. Even if the Department for Work and Pensions agrees to pay income support for mortgage interest in its place.

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