Joint Service Housing Advice Office (JSHAO)

JSHAO is a tri- Service organisation which provides Service personnel and their families with information and advice on the range of civilian housing options open to them.

Where possible JSHAO also provide placement to Service Persons and their dependants and to ex-Service personnel still occupying Service Accommodation. Whether you are about to leave the Service or are thinking of buying your own home, there are a number of housing schemes available to the Service and Ex Service community.  These include the Ministry of Defence Nominations scheme, Low Cost Home Ownership and the Key Worker Living Programme.

JSHAO Housing Briefings

JSHAO host various briefings across the country, which discuss housing options and encourage Service personnel to make preparations for long term civilian housing in the UK before they leave Service. Attendance at these courses does not count against Resettlement entitlement. For further information on civilian housing options, upcoming briefing dates and to contact JSHAO, please visit their webpage on the GOV.UK website.

JSHAO Housing Matters Magazine
The JSHAO team produce a monthly 'Housing Matters' magazine. Each addition focuses on a particular region within the UK and a unique housing issue. Copies are available from your Unit, Hives, Regional Resettlement Centres and JSHAO.

Affordable Homes

There are numerous housing schemes available to help Service personnel to buy their own homes.  A helpful leaflet has been put together by the Service Personnel Command Paper team, which outlines the schemes available and the additional measures that have been put in place to benefit Service personnel and their families. As Armed Forces Personnel you have “priority status” to access the schemes whilst you are serving, and for a further 12 months after you leave.  Click here to read the leaflet.

Are you Looking to Buy a House?

The Armed Forces Home Ownership Scheme is a pilot scheme, designed specifically to provide assistance to qualifying service personnel, to purchase a home on the open market. If you are eligible, you could borrow between 15-50% of the value of the home that you have chosen on the open market. To be eligible you must have no less than 4 years and no more than 6 years continuous service, and be unable to afford a suitable home on your own. Funding for the scheme is limited and applications will be taken on a first come, first served basis. For more details about eligibility for the scheme, click here.

Armed Forces Top of the List for Housing (May 2011)

Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, has announced that from now on members of the Armed Forces will be given top priority for housing help. Serving personnel, as well as those recently retired, will be able to benefit from the FirstBuy Scheme. The Minister also signalled that the Government will ensure that all low-cost home ownership schemes will now routinely place members of the Armed Forces at the top of their priority lists, and that government housing agents will be instructed to go out and actively recruit military personnel for such schemes. Click here for more details.