Housing Associations in the UK
Housing Associations are now a major provider of homes for rent in the UK. Incorporated as not for profit bodies, housing associations exist to ease the affordable housing shortage by building or buying houses and running these as social landlords. Any money they make is reinvested in their building stock to maintain existing houses or purchasing new ones. Housing associations rent housing to those in the greatest need and often, especially in urban areas, there will be a waiting list and restrictive criteria of those they will help. Some associations are set up to help particular groups of people, for example the elderly or people with certain disabilities.
As house prices continue to rise out of line with salaries, increasingly first time buyers struggle to get their foot onto the housing ladder. Some housing associations will help these would-be buyers by investing in a share of the property, often you will buy a quarter or a half of the house and rent the remainder from the housing association. This enables you to build equity where you would otherwise be left to simply rent. Buying with a housing association gives you access to many of the advantages of buying a house but also limits you with the disadvantages of renting a house.
There are thousands of housing associations throughout the country – you can find your local one in the yellow pages, from your local authority's housing department or through their national federations; the National Housing Federation (NHF) in England, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), Welsh Federation of Housing Associations (WFHA) and the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA).