National Housing Federation launches shared ownership campaign with 40 associations
The National Housing Federation (NHF) has launched a nationwide campaign aimed at boosting the public’s understanding of shared ownership.
The campaign, which has been developed over a two-year period with the help of more than 40 housing associations, hopes to deliver a clear, consistent way for the sector to talk about and market shared ownership.
The campaign is based around a three-year advertising drive covering print, social media and outdoor advertising. The campaign will also make a suite of advertising materials available to participating housing associations to help them market their shared ownership homes.
The NHF has also developed a new website, which for the first time lists all shared ownership homes for sale across the country in one place, as well as providing advice about shared ownership purchases.
Housing associations in England currently manage 320,000 shared ownership homes. They built more than 14,000 last year.
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The campaign comes amid potentially major changes to shared ownership by the government. In August last year, housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced plans to overhaul the current shared ownership product and create a new national model to help more first-time buyers onto the housing ladder.
Proposals included allowing shared owners to staircase in chunks as small as 1%, introduced a standardised model to make it easier for mortgage lenders to lend and get rid of exemption clauses that give housing associations first option on the properties.
Ella Cheney, shared ownership programme manager at the NHF, said: “Over the last decade, it’s become so much harder to get a foot on the housing ladder. Shared ownership is a great potential solution, but the problem is that too many people just don’t know about it.
“When people have heard of it, there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the product. We knew the whole sector was keen to overcome these barriers, and that’s what this campaign sets out to do.
“This nationwide advertising campaign will help to raise public awareness and understanding, making sure that people know shared ownership could be just what they need to take that much-needed step onto the housing ladder.”
Amy Nettleton, chair of the NHF’s shared ownership steering group and assistant development director (sales and marketing) at Aster, said: “It has been a pleasure to chair the industry steering group for this well-timed campaign – it really is an industry first that we should collectively be very proud of.
“For years the sector has developed its own shared ownership brands and been successful in selling thousands of homes all over the country. But what keeps being said to us year after year is the high levels of confusion around the product. This is what we aim to tackle in the first phase of the campaign – we want shared ownership to be a conscious thought when people are looking to move home.
“What also sets this campaign apart is that we are committed to it: for an initial period of three years providers from all over the country are committed to spreading the word and raising the profile of shared ownership. It really is an exciting time ahead with a co-created narrative that has never been achieved before.”
The National Housing Federation’s shared ownership campaign
The National Housing Federation (NHF) is seeking to boost the profile of shared ownership across England.
It has created a campaign with some of its housing association members “to develop and deliver a clear, consistent way the sector talks about and markets shared ownership”.
It is part of a wider advertising campaign launched in January 2020, designed to help the public understand what shared ownership is and help more people into homeownership.
The NHF says that 45 housing associations have now signed up to the campaign’s steering group.
Prominent members include:
- Amy Nettleton, assistant development director (sales and marketing) at Aster
- Jim Munson, head of sales and marketing at Notting Hill Genesis
- Kush Rawal, director of residential investment at Metropolitan Thames Valley
- Louise Gregory, head of sales and marketing at Moat
- Paresh Laxhman, head of land, planning and sales at Rooftop Housing Group
- Rob Poole, managing director of Open Door at Halton Housing
- Sandy Kelly, head of sales at Onward
- Sarah Clark, head of sales and marketing at EMH Group
- Steve Moseley, director of governance, strategy and communications at L&Q
- Tariq Qureshi, sales and marketing director at Southern Housing
- Tim Seward, director of sales and marketing at Clarion
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Inside Housing Development Summit 2020
Inside Housing is pleased to join forces with Homes England and the LGA to introduce the Inside Housing Development Summit.
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