In October last year, the government’s housing agency, Communities Scotland, launched a new scheme to help people on low incomes who would like to own their own home but who can’t afford to pay the full price for a house.

Albyn are now able to build new homes with some grant funding from Communities Scotland for sale on a ‘shared equity’ basis.  Shared equity means that we keep a stake in part of the value of the house so that you do not have to fund all of it to own it.  People who buy a house under shared equity will own it fully, and will be expected to raise as much mortgage as they can to pay for a majority share of the value (usually between 60 and 80%).  When the house is sold, both the owner and Albyn will get their share of the property value back.

Homestake mainly aims to help first-time-buyers, and tenants and applicants of housing associations and local councils.  It can help others too, for example, people who are looking for a new home after a significant change in their circumstances, or who are disabled and live in a house that does not suit their needs.

Since the scheme was launched, Albyn Housing Society has been working in close partnership with Cairn Housing Association to deliver a programme of new houses that will be sold through Homestake.  Between us, the two organisations will be building around 500 new homes across the area over the next three years to be sold under the Homestake scheme.  We have set up a joint contact point called HomestakeHighland that will deal with enquiries and issue applications and advice about the scheme to people interested in any of the houses being developed by either organisation.

If you are interested in getting more information about Homestake, please contact Angela Kay on 01349-855991 or email homestakehighland.info@uk2.net