Recommendation 24

Shared owners can face considerable difficulty selling shares in their property, which many are prompted to do once rising costs reach unaffordable levels. Many are still waiting on their buildings to be remediated, without which they are legally unable to sell their shares and so end up trapped in properties they can no longer afford. Providers currently have no obligation to buy back shares from shared owners or to allow shared ownership tenants to sublet. We welcome the Secretary of State’s recent 42 Shared Ownership intervention to allow providers more flexibility in allowing shared owners to sublet, and in buying back shares, but these decisions remain entirely at the provider’s discretion and more could still be done.