Selling a Shared Ownership home — resale, nomination periods and protected areas

You can sell a Shared Ownership home — but it works differently from selling on the open market, and in a Designated Protected Area there can be extra conditions. Here's what to expect.

What you're actually selling

If you own a share (say 50%), you sell your share at its current market value, and the buyer takes over the Shared Ownership lease — buying your share and paying rent on the landlord's remaining share. If you've staircased to 100%, you usually sell as a normal home (though some leases still give the landlord a right of first refusal — check yours).

The nomination period

A key difference from a normal sale: your lease typically gives the landlord (housing association) a set period to find a buyer first — often called the nomination period — before you can market the home yourself on the open market (gov.uk: Shared ownership homes — buying, improving and selling). This helps keep the home within the scheme for other eligible buyers. The length is set by your lease, so check it early.

The steps

1. Tell your landlord you want to sell and check the lease's resale process.
2. Get a RICS valuation — the sale price of your share is based on current market value.
3. Nomination period — the landlord tries to find an eligible buyer.
4. Open market — if they don't find one in time, you can usually sell yourself.
5. Conveyancing — a solicitor handles the assignment of the lease to the buyer.

Are Shared Ownership homes harder to sell?

They can take longer than an open-market sale, mainly because of the nomination period and the smaller pool of eligible buyers (and, on some homes, mortgage availability for the buyer). They're far from impossible to sell, but it pays to start early, get a realistic valuation, and understand your lease's resale terms up front.

Selling in a Designated Protected Area

In a Designated Protected Area — mostly small rural settlements — leases carry extra protections so homes stay affordable for local people. Depending on the lease, that can mean:

• a local-connection requirement for the buyer;
• the landlord's pre-emption right (right to buy back) — indeed, where a lease allows staircasing above 80%, the rules require the leaseholder to sell their share back to the landlord when they sell (Homes England Capital Funding Guide).

This is the same framework that can cap staircasing at 80% in these areas — see Shared Ownership staircasing and the 80% cap.

Check before you buy or sell

Whether a home is in a Designated Protected Area changes the resale rules, so it's worth knowing up front. Check an address or postcode here for an indicative answer.

This is general guidance, not legal advice — your lease and the official Homes England map decide your specific case, so take advice from a conveyancer and an RICS valuer.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Shared ownership homes: buying, improving and selling (selling, nomination)
• Homes England — Capital Funding Guide, Shared Ownership (Designated Protected Area resale and sell-back)

Accurate as of June 2026.