More funding to help people with Rent to Own scheme

An extra £5million has been secured for an assisted home ownership scheme in Denbighshire.

Denbighshire County Council administers the Rent to Own grant for Welsh Government, a scheme which supports applicants who do not have the minimum five per cent deposit to buy a home, but are otherwise able to access a mortgage.

The scheme in Denbighshire, which is operated through Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), was initially allocated £1.8m over a three-year period between 2018 – 2021 and due to the success of the scheme in the county, an additional £5.8m has been secured from Welsh Government.

The funding is used by RSLs to build new homes specifically for the Rent to Own Scheme and currently includes new build sites in Rhyl, Rhuddlan, Meliden, St Asaph, Denbigh and Llanfair DC.

Cllr Tony Thomas, the Council’s Lead Member for Housing and Communities, said: “Rent to Own provides a fantastic opportunity for Denbighshire residents to get on the housing ladder and contributes to our priority of providing homes that meet the needs of our residents.

“Securing an extra £5.8m to develop the scheme shows what a success this has been in the county and will make a real difference to the number of houses that can be created.

“The Council is also continuing to work with RSLs and private developers to ensure there is suitable affordable housing in the county, as well as progressing with our own programme of building council homes.”

Applicants rent one of the new build properties and after a period of up to five years they buy the property, with 25 per cent of the rent paid being returned to the applicant as a deposit for the home. 

The scheme has proved very popular in Denbighshire with a total of 99 new build properties being made available between 2018 and 2022.

These properties are in addition to properties secured for affordable or social housing through the planning process and also complements the 24 council houses being built on land above Tan y Sgubor, Denbigh, the first new council homes to be designed and built for the Denbighshire area in 30 years.

A total of 139 affordable homes were also provided in the county by private developers and RSLs including Cartrefi Conwy, Grŵp Cynefin, Clwyd Alyn and Wales & West between April 2019 and March 2020.

As part of the Rent to Own scheme there are two bedroom and three bedroom properties available under the scheme, applicants need to have a household income of between £18,000 to £60,000 to be eligible.

* Those interested in the scheme should contact Tai Teg on 03456 015 605 or info@taiteg.org.uk