Shared ownership insight report: summary

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) is a non-departmental public body that provides free legal advice for residential leaseholders in England and Wales. We support over 20,000 leaseholders each year who approach us with queries about their properties.

As such, we are uniquely placed to understand leaseholders’ concerns. We aim to be an authoritative and influential voice on the leasehold experience for government and other stakeholders in the leasehold and commonhold sector, such as policymakers, parliamentarians, campaigners and other relevant bodies.

This report is the fourth in a series of insight reports that we have produced to share the experience of our clients – highlighting the issues they face, their concerns, and how government and the sector can support them.

We commissioned this research on shared ownership from RF Associates because recent work, including the National Audit Office’s investigation, has shown there is a clear opportunity to fill an evidence gap on the shared ownership consumer experience. We wanted to better understand the challenges shared owners face and where they need support.

We would like to thank the shared owners whose experiences inform this report, and the sector organisations that contributed their time and expertise. Their willingness to share often difficult experiences has helped provide a richer understanding of the challenges facing shared owners and the opportunities for improvement.

The research combines:

• background research, looking at existing evidence about shared ownership
• stakeholder engagement to gather views from the sector
• analysis of LEASE enquiry data

The main analysis focused on 791 enquiries from shared owners received by LEASE during the 2025/26 financial year, alongside 5 years of wider enquiry data which can be accessed through our data insights hub.

Researchers examined both the way enquiries are categorised and the detailed information provided by consumers to better understand the issues behind each case.

Because many enquiries involve several connected problems, the research combined quantitative analysis with detailed qualitative review. This helped identify not only the topics people contact LEASE about, but also the experiences and challenges behind those enquiries.

It is important to understand what this evidence is, and what it is not. Our enquiry data captures the experiences of shared owners who contact us for advice, often because they are facing a problem, uncertainty or dispute.

As a result, this report shows where shared ownership is not working for those seeking support, rather than a picture of the experiences of all shared owners. Its purpose is not to measure how common these issues are, but to understand the challenges people face, the questions they ask, and what those experiences can tell us about how the system operates in practice.

Shared ownership enquiries have remained a consistent proportion of all enquiries received by LEASE over the last 5 years, representing around 3% to 4% of total demand.

Most enquiries in 2025/26 related to flats (75%) and were predominantly from shared owners in London (45%) and the South East (18%). The 10 local authorities with the highest number of enquiries are all in London, with Southwark highest.

Many of the issues raised by shared owners are the same as those faced by other leaseholders. This includes a general issue of landlords’ and agents’ failure to communicate and engage, alongside specific issues with service charges, repairs, building management and fire safety.

Service charges are the largest area of enquiry. Shared owners frequently seek help to understand increases in costs, challenge charges, or get information from landlords and managing agents. The financial impact can be particularly acute for shared owners, who are often balancing mortgage payments, rent and service charges at the same time.

Shared owners also contact LEASE about issues that are specific to the tenure, including:

• staircasing, such as difficulties staircasing to larger shares or 100% ownership, disputes over valuations, and confusion about complex processes
• resale restrictions and barriers when selling, including nomination periods, buy-back refusals, problems getting a mortgage due to short leases or building safety issues, and concerns that improvements to their homes were not reflected in resale valuations
• lease extensions and the inability to access the statutory lease extension rights available to other leaseholders
• restrictions on subletting
• rising rent on the landlord’s retained share

Many enquiries also reflect the consequences of partial ownership with limited control. Some shared owners reported being unable to extend leases, sell homes, or resolve building safety issues because decisions depended on housing associations or superior landlords.

Enquiries about repairs and service charges suggest a perception that shared owners carry many of the responsibilities of full ownership while remaining dependent on landlords for key decisions and building-level management.

Across these themes, affordability, complexity and limited consumer control emerge as recurring concerns.

This summary highlights only a selection of the consumer journeys identified through the enquiry analysis. The full report provides a more detailed exploration, supported by anonymised quotations and real examples that demonstrate the human impact behind the findings.

Many of the challenges shared owners face are linked to the complexity of the tenure itself. Processes such as staircasing, selling a property, extending a lease and subletting can be difficult to navigate, particularly when people do not fully understand how the scheme works or what restrictions apply. This highlights the importance of clear information and advice throughout the customer journey.

The report also shows that communication is a major factor behind many enquiries. Shared owners often contact us not because a problem exists, but because they cannot get information, explanations or responses from the organisations responsible for managing their homes. Poor communication, delays and a lack of transparency appear across many different enquiry types.

While many concerns raised by shared owners are similar to those of other leaseholders, the financial structure of shared ownership can increase the impact. Shared owners may be paying a mortgage, rent and service charges at the same time, making unexpected costs or delays particularly difficult to manage.

Finally, the report highlights the value of better data and evidence. Improving how information is collected and analysed could help identify emerging issues earlier, support more targeted advice, and strengthen understanding of shared owners’ experiences over time.