Shared Ownership Valuation in Brighton and Hove

A shared ownership valuation is a formal RICS Red Book appraisal of the full open-market value of the property. It does not value only the share you own, it values the whole home as though it were being sold outright on the open market. That figure is then used to work out the cost of extra shares when staircasing, the resale price if you sell your equity back to the housing association, or the loan-to-value ratio for a remortgage.

Your housing association will usually state that the valuation has to be completed by a RICS-registered valuer and prepared in line with Red Book guidance. Estate agent appraisals and generic automated valuations are not accepted. Our reports satisfy the requirements used by housing associations in Brighton and Hove, including Guinness Homes and Southern Housing.

The report is valid for three months only. If the staircasing does not complete within that period, a fresh valuation will be needed. We usually advise booking as soon as the housing association confirms a report is required, rather than leaving it until the last minute.

• Staircasing - buying additional shares from your housing association
• Resale - selling your share on the open market or back to the association
• Remortgage - switching lender or releasing equity from your shared ownership home
• Back-to-back staircasing - purchasing 100% ownership in a single transaction

In Brighton and Hove, most shared ownership schemes sit in purpose-built apartment blocks and newer estates around the edges of the city. Our valuers have inspected homes across every major development locally.

There are several well-known schemes. Lyon Quarter in Hove, BN3 1RX, developed by Guinness Homes, has one and two-bedroom apartments with shares from 25% and deposits from £4,063. Grand Avenue, Hove, run by Southern Housing, includes one and two-bedroom apartments. Coombe Farm in Saltdean, Hornbeam Grove, offers one to three-bedroom family homes with gardens and parking, with prices from £122,500 for a leasehold share. Edward Street Quarter in Brighton city centre has shared ownership homes from £75,000.

That is only part of the picture. Brighton and Hove also has a sizeable supply of older shared ownership homes, including refurbished Victorian villas turned into flats on Preston Road, seafront apartment blocks, and period terraces in the inner suburbs. These need careful comparable analysis because older shared ownership stock sits in a different market from new-build schemes.

The pipeline is growing too. The local council has approved more than 200 new homes on green land beside the South Downs and Stanmer Estate, and Toads Hole Valley is earmarked for up to 300 homes. A number of those homes are expected to come forward as shared ownership over the next few years.

Our RICS-registered valuers inspect the property in person. They look at condition, layout, size, specification, and location, then form an opinion on open-market value. Recent comparable sales from the surrounding area are used to support the figure, and those are set out in the written report.

Brighton and Hove is not a simple market to value in. Regency terraces and Victorian villas in Hove sit alongside new-build apartment blocks in Saltdean and the city centre, with converted period homes spread across the inner suburbs. Each part of that market needs its own comparables approach. Our valuers know these sub-markets first hand and can tell the difference between a genuinely comparable sale and one that ought to be discounted.

Flats are the most common shared ownership property type in the city, so details matter. We look at floor level, sea or park views, whether there is a lift, service charge levels, and the remaining lease length. In Brighton and Hove, those points can shift value materially. An upper-floor flat in a seafront block, for instance, may achieve a 15-20% premium over an identical ground-floor unit.

• Physical inspection of the property and all habitable rooms
• Review of comparable sales evidence within a defined search radius
• Assessment of lease terms, service charges, and ground rent
• Consideration of condition, age, and specification of the development
• Adjustment for floor level, aspect, and any sea or park views
• Written Red Book report accepted by all UK housing associations

Thinking about selling your shared ownership home in Brighton and Hove? The first move is to tell the housing association. It will usually have nomination rights for a set period, commonly eight weeks, to try to find a buyer itself. Before that nomination period starts, you will normally need to arrange a RICS valuation so the asking price can be set.

The resale price is based on the full open-market value in the RICS report, and the buyer purchases your share at the same proportion. If, for example, we value a Brighton flat at £280,000 and you own 40%, the share being sold is worth £112,000.

Across the city, 2,857 property sales were recorded in the twelve months to December 2025. The wider market was down 1.6% year on year, but demand from first-time buyers remained active, with an average purchase price of £346,000 in the same period. Shared ownership homes continue to attract attention for exactly that reason, they give first-time buyers a route into Brighton and Hove without raising a deposit on the full purchase price.

We prepare resale valuations to exactly the same standard as staircasing reports. If the housing association finds a buyer at the price stated in our report, you can move ahead knowing the figure is backed by clear market evidence.

If your fixed-rate deal is ending and you plan to move your shared ownership mortgage to a new lender, that lender will want a formal valuation. The point is to confirm the property's value and check the loan-to-value position. Many lenders arrange this through their own panel valuer, though some will accept a Red Book report commissioned by the borrower.

With shared ownership remortgages in Brighton and Hove, lenders also need to understand the lease structure and the rent still payable to the housing association on the unsold share. Our reports cover the lease terms, the current ground rent and service charge position, and the open-market value. Those are all details a lender's underwriters will expect to see.

In December 2025, buyers across the city who purchased with a mortgage paid an average of £414,000. For shared ownership owners who have staircased to 100% and are now remortgaging the whole value, that gives a useful benchmark. Even so, the figure for any individual property can differ materially depending on its size, location, and condition.