Buying a Home of Your Own

If you are thinking of buying a home of your own, there are a number of schemes available to Hexagon tenants (subject to availability and some eligibility criteria). The schemes are summarised on this page. For full details, please contact our Customer Service Team on 020 8778 6699.

Please note that the Right to Buy scheme is only available to council tenants and tenants whose homes have been transferred from the council’s management to a Housing Association. Hexagon tenants are not eligible for the Right to Buy scheme.

Right to Acquire

If your home was built or purchased by Hexagon after 1997, you will probably have the right to purchase it at a discounted price. The size of the discount depends on where your Hexagon home is; for most of the areas in which Hexagon properties are situated, the discount is currently £16,000.

If you have the Right to Acquire, you will have been told about it when you started your tenancy, although you can check by contacting the Customer Services Centre. Please note that housing specially built for the elderly, wheelchair users, or people with other special requirements may be excluded from the scheme.

Homebuy

The Homebuy scheme is very simple. You find a home on the open market and pay 75% of its cost. A shared ownership housing association pays the other 25%. You pay back 25% of the property value if and when you decide to sell the property or buy it outright. You must be able to raise a mortgage or have the savings to pay for 75% of the price of the home you want to buy.

We do not operate a Homebuy scheme ourselves at Hexagon, but Hexagon tenants are entitled to take part in the scheme. Tower Homes Ltd has Homebuy funds for a number of Local Authority areas. If you are interested in this scheme, you should telephone Tower Homes Ltd on 020 8850 9686, or email them at towerhomes@lqgroup.org.uk. They will be able to tell you if there are Homebuy funds available in your area, and if you are eligible to apply.

You will not be able to qualify for Homebuy if:

  • You are able to buy without the help of Homebuy.
  • You occupy your home on a temporary basis with an assured shorthold tenancy or licence agreement.
  • You are in rent arrears or in breach of your tenancy agreement.

New Build Homebuy

If you would like to own your own home, but cannot afford to buy on the open market, New Build Homebuy could be for you.

New Build Homebuy allows you to buy a share of a property from a housing association and pay rent for the remainder. Your monthly outgoings will include repayments on any mortgage you have taken out, plus rent on the part of the property retained by the housing association. Later, as you can afford it, you can increase your share until you own the whole property.

It is a good way of getting onto the ‘property ladder’ if you cannot afford to buy a home outright.

Hexagon is developing a small number of New Build Homebuy schemes. Please contact our Customer Service for more information.

Tower Homes Ltd also develops a number of New Build Homebuy homes in Southeast London – You can contact them on 020 8850 9686 for further details. Alternatively, visit www.housingoptions.co.uk for more information about affordable housing in the London area.

Social Homebuy

Social Homebuy allows social housing tenants to buy their current home either outright or on shared owership terms with the benefit of a discount. This is likely to be of interest to tenants who don’t qualify for the Right to Acquire scheme or who are not currently in a position to buy their home outright.

The maximum discount will vary between £9,000 and £16,000, depending on the location of the property. The amount of discount payable will be in proportion to the initial amount purchased. There is only one discount payment, payable upon purchase of the initial share. Only existing secure or assured tenants are eligible.

Tenants who are facing legal action for anti-social behaviour or breaches of their tenancy agreement cannot take part.

Hexagon have only a small budget allocation available for Social Homebuy, and so only a limited number of applications will be successful.

For more information about Social Homebuy please contact our Customer Services Centre.