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Mortgage Product Manager, Danielle Willmott, recently attended Shelter’s ‘People and Homes 2024’ conference in Cardiff. She shares her thoughts on how Monmouthshire Building Society is joining the voices aiming to make homes accessible for all.
 

Wales is in a housing emergency, with thousands of people unable to access a safe, secure, suitable and affordable home. 

Shelter Cymru say ending this emergency is possible, and at the heart of doing so, is increasing the availability of social homes.

One of the aims of a building society is to help people buy their own home, whether that’s offering them a mortgage or helping them to save, and Monmouthshire Building Society is no exception. Since 1869, we’ve been helping people in our home town of Newport, and beyond, onto the property ladder. It’s what we do and will continue to do for many years to come. So, when the opportunity to attend the People and Homes 2024 conference came up, we knew we could add to the conversation.

The conference brought together people from across the housing industry. Everyone from journalists advocating for the housing crisis to financial institutions, like ours, who are adapting to the ever-changing needs of today’s buyers.

Tough times
 

We all know times are tough. At the heart of the discussion this year was social housing, the human impact of a lack of social homes, the importance of social homes in addressing issues ranging from homelessness to health and how we can collectively change the system to increase the numbers of social homes available and end the housing emergency once and for all. 

Social housing is one of the ways we are supporting people onto the property ladder at the Society. Monmouthshire Building Society has recently partnered with two Housing Associations in south Wales aiming to help homebuyers into more affordable homes.

Through our partnership with Pobl Group we’re offering two shared ownership products through specific mortgage brokers for Pobl buyers.

And a second partnership with Wales & West Housing will support buyers through the Own Home Cymru initiative, which offers buyers homes at 70% of the open market value. Under the initiative, buyers own the property outright with Wales & West Housing holding legal charge on the remaining 30% equity share, meaning buyers only need to raise a mortgage for the 70% and no interest or rent would be payable on the remaining 30%.

We hope both initiatives can offer people the opportunity to either buy their first homes or help them buy an affordable, sustainable next home.

Partnership working
 

We attended the People and Homes event alongside Wales and West, but it gave us the chance to hear the views of people from across the industry. 

Keynote speakers passionately spoke about the current housing crisis in Wales and delivering change, especially in regard to supporting those who don’t currently have a home.

We took the opportunity to discuss how we might be able to help, perhaps expanding our work with Housing Associations and continuing to support Shelter, who have been our Strategic Charity Partner for the past five years.

Shelter Cymru’s tagline is HOME IS EVERYTHING. They exist to defend the right to a safe home in Wales. They believe everyone has the right to have somewhere to call a home and we stand by them in that view.

As a local, regional Building Society we continue to help our communities to thrive and help local people find a place to call their own.

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