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As I step away after almost a decade as director of finance at Co-Ownership, now is an appropriate opportunity to reflect on my time within Northern Ireland’s housing sector, the lessons learned along the way, and the role the sector can continue to play in helping more people achieve the security and stability that owning a home can provide.
During my time working across the housing sector there has been much market volatility, and we continue to face new challenges today – most notably a deepening housing shortage, driven by infrastructure constraints and a lack of confidence that, for a variety of reasons, has continued to restrict construction.
One of the clearest lessons from recent years is that housing markets cannot rely on short-term initiatives alone. Sustainable home ownership cannot be delivered without a clear long-term approach to planning, stable funding structures, and evolving products.
Over the last decade, Co-Ownership has supported more than 9,000 home ownership journeys and helped unlock over £1 billion in property value across Northern Ireland.
Crucially, the model has remained resilient through some of the most economically turbulent periods in recent memory.
In fact, each year, hundreds of property transactions wouldn’t occur without our presence in the market, underlining the role the Co-Ownership model plays in supporting overall housing market activity.
Our resilience has not happened by accident. Firstly, a seven-year funding agreement with Bank of Ireland represented an important milestone by providing much needed stability at a time when markets were becoming increasingly unpredictable.
More recently, the Department for Communities provided £153 million in Financial Transactions Capital funding to support 4,000 households into home ownership over the next four years.
These types of commitments matter because confidence remains critical to housing delivery. Developers, lenders, and buyers all need stability if the market is to operate effectively and deliver the homes Northern Ireland needs, when they need it.
But affordability pressures facing buyers have intensified significantly in recent years. Rising house prices, higher interest rates, inflation and increasing rents have placed growing pressure on household budgets, making it harder for many people to save for a deposit. For some, the deposit requirement has become the greatest barrier to achieving home ownership.
Through our partner lenders such as AIB NI, Danske Bank and Progressive Building Society, Co-Ownership customers can now access 100% mortgages.
Last year, around half of our customers secured their home without needing a deposit. For many people across Northern Ireland, this option transforms home ownership from something that feels totally out of reach into something genuinely achievable.
Co-Ownership works because it provides flexibility while still maintaining financial discipline. Around 90 per cent of our customers will ultimately buy out the organisation’s share completely, demonstrating that the model acts as a genuine stepping stone into full ownership.
Alongside this, Co-Ownership has continued to demonstrate innovation in how it responds to changing housing needs. Through the development of our Over 55s product, we identified a gap in the market and sought to support more people into home ownership by thinking differently about how our model could be applied.
The Department for Communities has been supportive of this approach, recognising the importance of evolving products to meet a broader range of needs across Northern Ireland.
The housing challenges facing Northern Ireland are complex and there is no single solution. While there are significant challenges ahead, there is also a great deal of important work continuing across the sector.
Co-Ownership continues to demonstrate the meaningful difference that secure home ownership makes, not just to financial security, but to people’s physical health, mental wellbeing and overall quality of life, and the wider positive impact this has on our economy and communities.
It is vital that we don’t lose sight of the purpose behind this work. For the people we support, access to home ownership is life changing. As one customer put it, “This opportunity has changed our lives, and we can relax knowing we have the security of a home for life”.
With the right long-term thinking, continued collaboration and a shared commitment to helping more people achieve a home of their own, we can continue to create lasting positive change for individuals, families and communities across Northern Ireland for years to come.
- Andrew Shott is director of finance for Co-Ownership (www.co-ownership.org)
