Like other building societies, Ecology was founded by Members who realised they could achieve more working together than alone. 

That’s one reason the business model has endured for so long, empowering and enabling millions of people to realise their home-owning aspirations, as it does to this day. 

And while the most common type of lending remains a mortgage secured against a single property, there are other ways to purchase a home. 

Owner-occupation by an individual, couple or family group is still seen as the most usual way to buy a home, but other tenures are available for people wanting to pool or share resources, whether for financial, social or other reasons. 

Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are just one example of community-led housing which can build new homes, improve existing properties, or repurpose empty or derelict buildings. 

CLTs create affordable homes for local people, built on land donated or acquired cheaply, such as from local authorities.  

In areas where property prices are high, these homes’ sale or rental prices are then discounted in perpetuity for those who meet eligibility criteria. 

Cohousing is another way for a group of people to build homes through a collective project, going a stage further by creating an intentional community. 

This type of development has individual residential units, with additional common buildings and amenities, such as cooking and laundry spaces, or vegetable plots the group uses and maintains. Pooling resources can include car share schemes and some groups even generate their own electricity. 

In Leeds, Ecology has supported Chapeltown Cohousing, now a well-established development which has brought together local residents with a strong sense of community and a desire to live more sustainably. 

Due to cohousing’s commitment to communal living, new purchasers wishing to join a scheme will need to be approved by the existing owners. 

Both CLTs and cohousing have been around for decades and in our experience can create vibrant, sustainable communities where many residents will want to stay.  

The developments Ecology has supported, built to high environmental standards, have been popular and often over-subscribed. Waiting lists for vacancies are an indication of the buyer demand for these schemes. 

So as people seek out ways to access affordable housing or create real communities, we believe there’s an opportunity for greater use of these types of tenure. 

Which is where we need action from more lenders to step into the community-led sector, particularly to provide development finance to get these projects started. 

Of course, teaming up with other individuals or families to create new homes or a new community won’t be for everyone. 

Beyond self-led groups, there’s another well-established way to buy a home in partnership – through shared ownership, a market where mutuals are more active. 

Shared ownership began in the 1980s, offering purchasers a way to buy an agreed share in their home and pay rent on the remainder, usually to a housing association. 

As the deposit is based on the value of the purchase share rather than the whole home, shared ownership has become particularly popular with first time buyers (77% of SO purchasers in 2022/23), as well as one-adult households (50%) and buyers under 30 (33%). For these groups, raising a deposit is a major obstacle to purchasing a home. 

As housing affordability remains a challenge for too many, it’s important for building societies to continue to anticipate and respond to customer need and come up with the products to support the social impact we were founded to deliver. 

Find out more: 

Ecology’s Community-led lending - https://www.ecology.co.uk/mortgages/community-and-commercial-mortgages/community-led-housing/  

ChaCo (Chapeltown Cohousing) - https://chapeltowncohousing.org.uk/ 

This article was first published in Society Matters magazine