Has anyone else here bought a house on shared ownership ? We've just sent off apllication

[chankins]

We applied about two years ago but were not earning enough money. Tried again now as we are both earning more, but just wondered really how it has worked for you ?

the scheme we are interested in is open market home-buy, as there are not many new-build schemes in this area. Wouold love to hear some happy stories about this method of buying own home !

[Helsbels4]

DH and I did this when we first lived together fouteen years ago. We bought 50% of the house and the HA (Orbit I think) rented the other half to us. We did this for nearly eight years, by which time the property prices had shot up, so we sold our half and put the equity from it towards a new mortgage for our present house which we are buying ourselves. It was a great help to us at the time as we certainly wouldn't have got onto the property ladder without it.

[chankins]

Thanks for replying helsbels, until I checked I thought yet another thread of mine had been ignored !

That sounds great, a lot pf people have been telling us its our only chance of getting onto property ladder, so if we get accepted this time we should go for it. But still a bit daunted and unsure what it all means. If I knew the mortgage and rent added together was less than our rent at the moment then I wouldn't worry so much ! But I guess we'll find out soon...

[KatieDD]

Please please don't do this, in 12 months time you will be able to buy the whole house and have all the benefits.
With 50% ownership you get half the profits with 100% of the maintainence and bills and have to pay rent how is that fair ?
As a first time buyer will have the golden ticket, keep saving you need as big a deposit as possible but trust me you'll be buying a house next year.

[noddyholder]

huge mistake

[elkiedee]

Yes, I'd be wary at least. It probably worked very well for buyers 10 years or more ago, like Helsbels, but in current market conditions prices are much much higher anyway compared to wages, and if they're still falling that's an issue.

If you do pursue it I'd look into what happens if things go wrong - you're not going to find it as easy to sell your share as Helsbels and her dh would have done 6 years ago.

[Helsbels4]

Chankins, I can't remember if there was a time limit on ours but we were allowed to buy back the rented half whenever we were able to, so if we could afford to go up to 75% of the mortgage and only 25% rent then we could but all you can do is look into it and get as much info as you possibly can. Tbh, I didn't know they still did this kind of thing because I don't see any of it in our area. I can't advise you bearing in my todays housing climate but it certainly helped us years ago.

[1dilemma]

Not sure this is a good idea in current market!

[mollythetortoise]

don't do it now.. wait for at least 12-18 months and you'll be able to afford a higher share or outright purchase. I do not understand the argument that shared ownership somehow protects the shared owner from negative equity. It doesn't at all. Your 50% share or whatever, will still be worth less if prices fall.. and you have NO equity in that share so IMO you are MORE at risk of negative equity not less.. please wait and put your money into savings for now

[paow]

We did, a year ago.
A brand new London flat.
Now we are stuck here and prices have gone down.
Wish we never did it, as now the HA asks us to pay their fees if we want to sell.
Tbh I don't recommend it, just keep renting, much more felixibility and you don't have to pay for repairs.