Rent to buy · For buyers and for sellers
Rent to buy is for people who can comfortably afford a monthly payment but cannot get a mortgage yet: self-employed for under two years, a deposit still being saved, or a credit file that needs a little time. You move into the house you intend to own, at a price fixed today, with part of what you pay each month credited towards the purchase.
Before you move in, the purchase price and the period in which you can buy go into an option agreement. Both are fixed from that day, and neither of us can move them later because circumstances changed.
A sum that buys you the right to purchase at the agreed price, and which is credited towards the purchase when you buy. The agreement states in pounds what it is and what happens to it in every scenario, before you pay a penny of it.
An assured shorthold tenancy with the protections that come with it, including your deposit held in a government-approved scheme. The rent sits above the plain market rent, and the agreement states exactly how much of each payment is credited towards the purchase.
Two full years of accounts, a clean payment record, a deposit growing month by month. We will tell you at the start whether your window looks long enough, and if we think it does not we will say so rather than take the option fee.
The credited payments and the option fee come off the agreed price, and it completes like any other purchase through your own solicitor. You will need to qualify for a mortgage at that point on your position as it is then, which is what the whole window is for.
This is a tenancy with an option to buy rather than a purchase, so the decision to buy stays yours and you are not obliged to take it. Fixing the price today protects you if the market rises and costs you if it falls. Take your own legal advice, paid for by you, before signing, and if any company ever discourages you from doing that, walk away from them.
A house that has sat on the market for months, an inherited property in the wrong town, a portfolio being wound down slowly, or a move already committed to. Rent to buy can put a committed occupier in the house at an agreed price, without you accepting a discount to shift it quickly.
An occupier with a real reason to look after the place, a monthly payment while it is occupied, an agreed sale price, and a date by which the position resolves.
You still own the property while the arrangement runs, so it remains your asset. If there is a mortgage on it, your lender's consent matters and we will not pretend otherwise. Your solicitor needs to be comfortable with the option, and if they are not, the answer is no.
Pressure you, ask you to sign at the kitchen table, or suggest you skip advice. If the sensible answer for you is a normal sale through an agent, we will say so and you will not hear from us again.
Constructiva