If you own a home through Shared Ownership, staircasing is how you increase the share you own over time. For most owners the goal is simple: buy more shares until you own 100% and become the outright owner. But a minority of Shared Ownership homes — those in a Designated Protected Area (DPA) — work differently, and that can come as a surprise. This guide explains staircasing, the 80% cap that applies in protected areas, and how to check whether a specific home is affected.
Staircasing is the process of buying additional shares in your Shared Ownership home. As Homes England's Capital Funding Guide puts it, "the leaseholder can purchase further shares in the property. In most cases they can purchase up to 100% of the equity in the property, thereby becoming the outright owner."
In a standard grant-funded Shared Ownership lease, the right to staircase all the way to 100% is a fundamental clause — a core protection the lease guarantees. Each time you staircase, you buy more equity at the current market value, and your rent on the landlord's remaining share goes down accordingly.
A Designated Protected Area is a mostly-rural settlement where the rules are designed to keep homes affordable for local people. In a DPA, the Capital Funding Guide requires the Shared Ownership lease to do one of two things:
In other words, in a DPA you may never be able to own your home outright on the open market in the way a typical Shared Ownership owner can. Which of the two applies depends on the wording of your individual lease — so it's essential to read it and ask your provider.
The aim is to retain affordable homes for local people in hard-to-replace rural areas. In small rural communities, once a home is sold at full market value it is very difficult to replace with another affordable one. The 80% cap (or the buy-back requirement) keeps the home within reach of local buyers for the long term. This is also why DPA resale conditions often include a local-connection requirement and give the landlord a pre-emption / nomination period to find an eligible buyer — always check the exact terms in your lease.
DPAs are defined in law by the Housing (Right to Enfranchisement) (Designated Protected Areas) (England) Order 2009 (SI 2009/2098). The Capital Funding Guide describes them as "settlements also currently designated as being exempt from the Right to Acquire (with a population of less than 3,000)" — so they are typically small, rural villages and parishes.
The staircasing restriction itself is enabled by a companion set of regulations, the Housing (Shared Ownership Leases) (Exclusion from Leasehold Reform Act 1967) (England) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/2097). These regulations also mean a Shared Ownership house in a DPA is generally excluded from the right to "enfranchise" (buy the freehold) under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 — another way the home is kept within the scheme.
This is current policy, not just a historical quirk: the Affordable Homes Programme 2021–2026 publishes specific Shared Ownership "80% restricted staircasing" model leases for Designated Protected Areas.
You can get an indicative answer in seconds with our free tool: check an address or postcode on DPA Check. It matches the location against the SI 2009/2098 schedules and, for "by maps" parishes, links the official Homes England map so you can confirm the exact boundary.
It's indicative guidance, not legal advice — for any transaction, confirm against the official map and take advice from your Shared Ownership provider, a conveyancer and an RICS valuer, and read your lease's staircasing and resale clauses carefully.
Accurate as of June 2026.
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