Shared Ownership Housing Associations

[Hayden2012]

Hello,
Please share your personal views on Shared ownership Housing Associations, particularly Clarion and Peabody.
Which one do you think better, in terms of management and communications?

I checked general reviews on Trustpilot and Google’s, but almost 90% of all have bad (!) ratings.
I’m in torn between Peabody and Clarion to choose a 2 beds flat from. Both flats look very good in desirable areas.
Have you got any views on these HAs? Your advice will be very helpful on making my decision.
For more information about these two flats,
Peabody one has got a very high rent £900 +Service charge £237 but relatively is a new built (2017)
Clarion one has a very low rent £250 + a high service charge £370 ( as it has a large beautiful communal garden). This one , I will need to get a small sum of mortgage and it works out roughly the same amount of money I’d need to pay monthly.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Best
Hannah

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I am with Metropolitan so I can't comment but I would look at whether there is a Tenant Association and look at their Facebook pages - do they keep people updated and engaged? What is the policy on rent increases? If you can, ask what the service charge was annually for the last 3 years?

Service charge always goes up and down depending on what is needed doing. Mine has increased around £40 over the last five years and one year I was paying £70 more than the first year because of some works that needed doing. Also look out for things like residents throwing out beds - the council charges for picking them up (pet hate) and it gets charged to all residents.

Its difficult from your post to see why the costs are so different- is the Peabody a rental property only? Would you have the opportunity to buy it later? Could you save while living there for a deposit? If so then it makes more sense.

Or the second one but you might start to resent the SC cost in a few years and want to move.

Re. Communal gardens- these are nice if you will use them. They do encourage people to care a bit more about the flats as they are paying more to maintain it.

Thanks MorePotatoSalad,for your kind comment. I haven’t thought about that. I will definitely look into it if they have a tenant association. The second one is located in a desirable area along with river Thames and a huge supermarket is right next to it. My husband thinks the commercial site shares rent so it’s cheaper. On the other hand, Peabody one is a relatively small site and it has only 23 flats ( private & SO) within the block. So the rent is maybe high.
Thanks again.

Did you go with any one ? What are the rent review period of Peabody ?