Giving up HA house for shared ownership

They are leasehold because you don’t own the whole thing. If you staircase up it’ll become your freehold. We also didn’t pay any type of ground rent or anything while it was leasehold. It’s just a technicality because there are two parties owning the house.

(Obviously I’m talking generally, not all are the same but most I’ve come across are)

Have you thought about exchanging to another property not near the neighbours? That way you get to keep your lifelong tenancy and be away from the neighbours?

If you do this please budget for and have a plan to staircase up, ie eventually buy out the housing association (even if with a mortgage) so the house is entirely yours and the bank's. You may not have a huge choice of providers in your chosen areas but they vary greatly in terms of responsiveness, customer service, how cooperative they will be if you want to sell, fees etc.

I can't give proper financial advice but I think from the point of view of security, you are almost as secure in SO as you are in HA rental. Obviously HA rental has a huge advantage over private rental because you will never be evicted due to the whims and profit-chasing of a private landlord. So you'll regularly see people stating that you would be mad to surrender a HA tenancy for a private rental, and this is true.
However, you are equally protected from the private landlords in a SO situation. You can still never be evicted. The % that you don't own is owned by a HA.

The thing that could go wrong is if you fail to keep up with payments on your mortgage, and that could spiral out of control. I would say it's safe enough so long as the amount you are borrowing is not close to the maximum your lenders would agree to lend. If your monthly budget would work out with plenty of slack for optional extras then its fine. If it would be quite tight making ends meet such that a relatively small change could leave you with costs greater than your income then stick with rental.

Shared Ownership.

If the SO costs are the same then I’d consider it - someone mentioned rises to the rent element, the OP will be paying that on her current HA home anyway.

My biggest concern would be buying on a shitty estate - you’ll have issues selling if and when you need or want to.

I know someone who had a shared ownership flat that used equity built for a deposit on an open market house so it worked out for them.

Everyone I know selling SO has got stung in some way. Restrictions on the sale limiting it, ground rent or rent hikes, delays to sales. They’ve ended up being like rentals they lost a deposit on effectively

youll own 30% - pay your mortgage on that, pay 70% rent which are subject to increases, be liable for repairs to the property also.
id stay put and save more and use the savings to buy a cheaper home later on.
for those who can’t give their kids a deposit put their name down on housing list at 18 even if it takes 5,6 - 10 years to get somewhere they will eventually.

We have lots of shared ownership around here. They are very desirable as a purchase- especially the 3 beds. Because they allow people to get on the housing ladder.
What exactly do you mean when you say 'if it doesn't work out?'

Following because I'm thinking of doing the same. Loads of SO houses around here and some in really nice areas. The main thing that puts me off is that all SO properties are leasehold. However, buying a freehold property with a traditional mortgage will probably never be an option for me.

I've had several friends that have had shared ownership - all have had problems selling the property on.
One got stuck where she had to pay revaluation fees every six months, another eventually found a buyer but the HA(?) that owned the other chunk of equity didn't approve them so it all fell through.

i veered away from shared ownership as it just seemed to expensive but if you can afford it you could consider it

what is SO

Don't think I would buy a property on a bad estate - house hunting is all location, location, location.
Can you save whilst in your present house.

I gave up HA to buy a house in my 40’s and do not regret it at all. Make sure you get life insurance and try to also save up one savings of your own

I try not to think about needing to go back to HA I am moving forwards

I’ve no advice re: the financial situation. I have had terrible neighbours tho, and the relief when we moved was immeasurable. The phrase ‘silence is golden’ has never rung more true that first week! I also like the thought fact my children will benefit from the proceeds of our house in the future, as it stands, we are very unlikely to have a ‘lump sum’ to help them with housing deposits etc (as we were not fortunate to receive help ourselves and I understand the struggle)

Good luck whatever you decide!