About Homes for Brighton & Hove
Homes for Brighton & Hove is a partnership between Brighton & Hove City Council and the Hyde Group.
By working together through the partnership, Hyde and the council can combine resources and provide new affordable homes for local people that the city urgently needs.
Our aim is to build 1,000 new affordable homes over the next few years, which will be specifically for lower income households in Brighton & Hove.
The benefits
- Half of the new homes will be available for rent from Brighton & Hove City Council, to people on the city’s joint housing register, on low social rents
- Half of the new homes will be available to buy as shared ownership homes from Hyde
- The energy-efficient homes will reduce energy demand and fuel costs for families.
What we're doing at the moment
The 104 homes at Clarendon Place, Portslade were completed and handed over from PMC Construction Limited to Hyde and Brighton & Hove City Council in April 2023. The highly energy-efficient homes have been let at affordable rents through the council and the shared ownership homes are managed by Hyde.
The first of the 242 homes on land to the east of Coldean Lane are due to be completed in autumn 2023, with final homes scheduled for completion in Spring 2024
Further sites are currently being identified so that we can deliver the remainder of the homes planned.
Why this housing is needed
Brighton & Hove is a growing city with high housing prices, low incomes, an ageing population and a significant proportion of households with support needs. There are about 7,000 households on the joint housing register, 1,850 households in temporary accommodation and rising homelessness. Social housing makes up only a small proportion of the overall housing in the city with 9% of homes owned by the local authority and 5.2% by housing associations.
The increasing demand for housing, reduced public funding for new affordable homes and a shift away from the development of rented and family homes remain key challenges identified by the council’s Housing Strategy and Budget. It is now harder than ever for local people who work in the city to afford to live in it as well.
The wider benefits
There are a number of potential wider benefits of the partnership for the city which include:
- Creating opportunities for education, training and apprenticeships
- Supporting hundreds of construction jobs while homes are being built
- Creating additional non-construction jobs
- Adding significant gross value to the economy
- Investing in new civic and community infrastructure benefitting the wider city.
Shared ownership
Shared ownership is a scheme which has been specifically designed to help those who are unable to afford to buy a property outright on the open market.
It works by allowing you to buy a share of your new home, and pay rent on the remaining share to Hyde (part buy, part rent). Applicants will be able to purchase a share of between 25% and 75% of the value of the home.
Buying more shares is called 'staircasing' and allows you to do this to a point where you own your home outright. The price paid for additional shares is based on the market value of the home. Staircasing can be done in separate stages, or in one stage to 100%. The minimum share that can be purchased is 10% of the unsold portion. The sale prices will be made available nearer the time of sale and will be based on market value at that time.
How to get a new home
Visit the St James Square, Clarendon Place, Portslade webpage to enquire or book a viewing.
Visit the Bluebell Heights, Coldean webpage for more information or to register your interest in the new homes.
For a rented home, applicants should register through the council’s housing register.