Sample cards and information
Online information resource linked to options workshop card
Delivery model: Mutual Home Ownership Society (MHOS)
Mutual home ownership is a recent model of collective home ownership. It enables a group to collectively buy or develop homes that they might not otherwise be able to afford.
Members receive equity stakes in the society and the use of one of the homes in return for the monthly payment they make to it. The society takes out a collective mortgage; each home is responsible for paying a share of it.
Using this model, the costs can be spread across the group according to ability to pay; higher income households can buy more equity shares than the value of their home or make a higher monthly payment, making other homes in the scheme more affordable for households on lower incomes. When a household leaves, they can sell their equity stakes, releasing the capital to buy a home elsewhere; it is important that the exit strategy for members enables them to sell their stakes and that a clear process for approving sales is agreed between members.
Homes will remain permanently affordable by disconnecting the occupation of the property from the underlying value of the land, it protects the scheme from fluctuations in the property market.
Post development management is controlled by the residents who live in them and is a suitable structure for cohousing, because it lends itself to housing developments where residents co-design and co-manage their own living spaces.
Downloadable resources
Mutual Home Ownership Society Model (PDF)
Case studies
Yorspace CLT: Mutual home ownership in a high value area (PDF)