香蕉福利直播

Guest blog: Creating homes and communities by working together

While the most common type of lending remains a mortgage secured against a single property, there are other ways to purchase a home. Dan Capstick, Mortgage Product Manager at Ecology Building Society, explains how other tenures, such as Community Land Trusts and CoHousing, can create vibrant, sustainable communities.

Dan Capstick, Ecology Building SocietyLike other building societies, Ecology was founded by Members who realised they could achieve more working together than alone. 

That’s one reason the business model has endured for so long, empowering and enabling millions of people to realise their home-owning aspirations, as it does to this day. 

And while the most common type of lending remains a mortgage secured against a single property, there are other ways to purchase a home. 

Owner-occupation by an individual, couple or family group is still seen as the most usual way to buy a home, but other tenures are available for people wanting to pool or share resources, whether for financial, social or other reasons. 

Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are just one example of community-led housing which can build new homes, improve existing properties, or repurpose empty or derelict buildings. 

CLTs create affordable homes for local people, built on land donated or acquired cheaply, such as from local authorities.  

In areas where property prices are high, these homes’ sale or rental prices are then discounted in perpetuity for those who meet eligibility criteria. 

Cohousing is another way for a group of people to build homes through a collective project, going a stage further by creating an intentional community. 

This type of development has individual residential units, with additional common buildings and amenities, such as cooking and laundry spaces, or vegetable plots the group uses and maintains. Pooling resources can include car share schemes and some groups even generate their own electricity. 

In Leeds, Ecology has supported Chapeltown Cohousing, now a well-established development which has brought together local residents with a strong sense of community and a desire to live more sustainably. 

Due to cohousing’s commitment to communal living, new purchasers wishing to join a scheme will need to be approved by the existing owners. 

Both CLTs and cohousing have been around for decades and in our experience can create vibrant, sustainable communities where many residents will want to stay.  

The developments Ecology has supported, built to high environmental standards, have been popular and often over-subscribed. Waiting lists for vacancies are an indication of the buyer demand for these schemes. 

So as people seek out ways to access affordable housing or create real communities, we believe there’s an opportunity for greater use of these types of tenure. 

Which is where we need action from more lenders to step into the community-led sector, particularly to provide development finance to get these projects started. 

Of course, teaming up with other individuals or families to create new homes or a new community won’t be for everyone. 

Beyond self-led groups, there’s another well-established way to buy a home in partnership – through shared ownership, a market where mutuals are more active. 

Shared ownership began in the 1980s, offering purchasers a way to buy an agreed share in their home and pay rent on the remainder, usually to a housing association. 

As the deposit is based on the value of the purchase share rather than the whole home, shared ownership has become particularly popular with first time buyers (77% of SO purchasers in 2022/23), as well as one-adult households (50%) and buyers under 30 (33%). For these groups, raising a deposit is a major obstacle to purchasing a home. 

As housing affordability remains a challenge for too many, it’s important for building societies to continue to anticipate and respond to customer need and come up with the products to support the social impact we were founded to deliver. 

Find out more

Ecology’s Community-led lending -  

ChaCo (Chapeltown Cohousing) -

 

 

This article was first published in Society Matters magazine

You may also be interested in...

  • 香蕉福利直播.IndustryResponse Industry Response
  • Conduct Risk & Regulation

香蕉福利直播 response to PRA CP17/24 and FCA CP24/28 on operational resilience: operational incident and outsourcing and third party reporting

The 香蕉福利直播 has issued a combined response to PRA CP17/24 Operational resilience: Operational incident and outsourcing and third party reporting and FCA C...

香蕉福利直播 Card
  • 香蕉福利直播.Event Event
  • Prudential Regulation

Suade’s exclusive dinner discussion on SDDT & Basel 3.1

A free event hosted by 香蕉福利直播 Associate, Suade Labs Suade invites you to an exclusive dinner discussion on Thursday, 3rd April 2025, bringing together...

香蕉福利直播 Card
  • 香蕉福利直播.IndustryResponse Industry Response
  • Savings

香蕉福利直播 Response to Treasury Committee Inquiry into the Lifetime ISA

The 香蕉福利直播 has published its response to the Treasury Committee's Call for Evidence on the Lifetime ISA (LISA). We support the Government’s aims for t...

香蕉福利直播 Card
  • 香蕉福利直播.IndustryResponse Industry Response
  • Thought leadership

香蕉福利直播 response to HMT Common Bond Reform call for evidence

The 香蕉福利直播 and NCUF welcome the opportunity to feed into HM Treasury’s planned reform of common  bonds.

香蕉福利直播 Card
  • 香蕉福利直播.IndustryResponse Industry Response
  • Conduct Risk & Regulation

PRA and FCA joint consultation on Remuneration Reform

Building Societies Association response to CP16/24

香蕉福利直播 Card
  • 香蕉福利直播.Event Event
  • Prudential Regulation

Treasury management training for credit unions

The objective of the course is to introduce participants to the role of Treasury, providing an introduction to financial markets, yield curves and how...

香蕉福利直播 Card
  • 香蕉福利直播.Event Event
  • Prudential Regulation

Risk appetite training for credit unions

With increasing regulatory focus on the safety and soundness of Credit Unions, it is crucial that you understand the regulator’s risk appetite expecta...

  • 香蕉福利直播.IndustryResponse Industry Response
  • Mortgages & Housing

Reforming the Energy Performance of Buildings Regime

The 香蕉福利直播 responded to the government’s consultation on reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime. The consultation sought input on changes ...

香蕉福利直播 Card
  • 香蕉福利直播.PressRelease Press Release
  • Mortgages & Housing

Many homeowners holding back on making energy efficiency improvements

Research from the Building Societies Association reveals that many homeowners are put off making energy efficiency improvements to their home without ...