Recommendation 5

Homes England should assess how fit for purpose their initial eligibility and affordability calculator is. As part of this, it should evaluate whether to include a ‘long-term’ function within the calculator to model affordability over 5-, 10- and 15- year periods which take into account the assumption that costs will rise over time for shared owners, through various scenarios. Homes England should also add a means Shared Ownership 39 of calculating how likely it is that shared owners will be able to afford to staircase, given projected costs, and not just assess affordability on the assumption that the shared owner remains on the initial share purchased.