To buy my housing association home now and not wait for right to buy

[Fulani1989]

I have lived in a housing association home for 6 years. Refurbished houses sell for roughly 130,000. Average semi detached houses in the area sell for over £200,000 as it's not a bad area but my house is on a medium sized (100 houses) council estate which brings down the value.

There's absolutely no way I want to live in this area any longer than I have to. It's okay for now as it's 12 miles from my job.

I have the right to acquire. I requested to know how much the housing association would be willing to sell me the house for. They said it was worth £90,000 and with discount of £9,000 that's £81,000. The reality is that my house is a worth around 110,000-130,000 but HA's tend to under value.

My house is a Council house it was just transferred to a HA 9 years ago. The right to buy is supposed to be extended to HA properties but I've been waiting over a year now and there doesn't seem to be ANY development. I'm starting to believe it's never going to happen.

With the RTB instead I would get a 36% discount and would only pay £57,600! Well, well worth waiting for. I'd be willing to wait a few years to get the discount as the discount gets bigger with each year I'm a tenant.

BUT I don't know if it will ever even happen and I don't want to live in this area indefinitely.

My parents and friends said wait for the Right to buy. But I'm sick of waiting.

Buying my housing association home is my only chance of buying a house. It's the only mortgage any lender is willing to give me because of a less than stellar credit rating from a few years of unemployment.

AIBU to just buy my house now? And just forget the chance of a much better discount?

I don't get why people are so outraged at those who want to buy their council/ha home. Be outraged at the councils who aren't using the money to build new properties like was intended. If the tenants don't buy this house they're just going to have to stay there anyway but pay rent. If the councils managed it properly this would actually be a great thing for social housing. Old properties sold to people who can't afford to buy elsewhere and new properties (meaning less maintenance for councils) would be provided for new tenants.

Some people really have it drummed into them that low income people are living the life of Riley... yet the rich and fat cats are let off the hook as they are 'deserving'

I have friends on lower income that end uo the same as me as they get top ups and free childcare etc. But I am not resentful. Seeing them have less wouldn't make me feel better. I would rather we all had a good lifestyle.

Umm the op will be paying interest on her mortgage to the bank.

Hi OP I work for a HA so know a bit about the scheme. There's no guarantee RTB will be rolled out across the UK, there was a pilot last year, but no decision made on what will happen next. My view is they won't roll it out as it will cost the Government to much money.

So its a fair Tory policy when suits? To listen to the tripe on mn these days everything the Tories do is evil, yet when 'one of us' can benefit it's all suddenly ok. You don't get it because it doesn't suit to accept the hypocrisy. Where would op have lived a few years ago if all the ha properties had been rtb-ed?

Well, 9K is nearly what I have coming in pa. Luckily, dh has about that much coming in too, so we live off under 20K a year. We have a child too, one who is nearly 18 and would like 9K in her own right to pay her first year's Uni fees.

9K is not nothing. If you could save that quite comfortably then you shouldn't be in HA or council housing.

9k is nothing?

what a pisstake

My house isn't anything special. I need to spend about £2500 to get it at the £130,00 standard.

It's not in a desireable area.

My council are currently building 600 new homes across th city. The average waiting time is two months for a house here. There's no shortage of social housing.

I desperately needed to move so had to take this house rather than wait 3 years for one in a better area.

The RTB has massively improved the area. This estate used to be a tip. Now that 80% of the houses in the area are bought it's become a much better place to live. People look after their homes more and the crime rate has reduce by over 90%

33k is a decent salary. But it's not 100k. I'm financially okay. But im by no means rich.

the average UK salary is £27k

only a tiny proportion of people earn £100k ffs

Can you not just move?

violet

I think you're probably right.

They shouldn't have been allowed pledge it if it wasn't going to be possible.

I may have to cut my losses and accept a much smaller discount.

With the interest on the mortgage I will end up paying market price anyway.

My housing officer told me I could do a swap with someone who has right to buy instead. Then buy that house once I became the official tenant. That way I get to have a bigger discount.

I might consider doing that.

I'm sure you will.manage to find the 2500 to get the house up to scratch seeing as how "9k is nothing"

It's really nothing about keeping people down, at least for me personally. I'm hugely concerned about the steady depletion of social housing which isn't being replaced with new homes. Waiting lists are growing and appropriate housing stock is shrinking. We can't keep letting local government sell off assets that need to be available to those in the most need.

Fulani1989 RTB is stupid, but as the saying goes, we should hate the game not the player. You talk about 10% v 36%, but will that 36% still be around in the future or will the government scrap this? 36% of what? Will the price stay static or will it climb?

In your shoes, I wouldn't wait for the 36%. People are very very angry at the moment about housing and they are getting angrier. There is a strong possibility the 36% will be off the table by the time you think you would qualify for it.

So, let's go back to the 10%. On your salary, you're right, it's not a massive discount. If you buy for that small discount, you are giving up a secure tenancy. Is it really worth doing that? What are your career prospects? If in a few years, you think you'll be earning more and those defaults will have dropped off your credit rating, then maybe waiting to buy, and waiting to buy a different property might be better. You don't even seem to like this one.

If you think you'll be struggling in a few years - then doesn't that secure tenancy sound like a better option after all?

You won't have to cut your losses op as you have still massively gained from it.

With the interest on the mortgage I will end up paying market price anyway

No, that isn't how it works.

Odfod. I hope your son never needs any help with housing. After all those that are sold off aren't being replaced.
I earn £16k have 2 kids and have to pay £750 a month to rent privately out of that. the reason I have to rent privately? It's beacause they've all been sold of round this way - in fact the house I rent is ex-council.
How do you not see that by coming on here and asking which discount on a discounted rental is best is not glast when there are many of us struggling day to day in the private sector that would love just to have a secure tenancy let alone a discounted rent!

I won't be struggling in a few years.

Unless I'm hit by an unexpected misfortune I should be earning a comfortable salary.

It is worth getting a mortgage as my money is wasted renting. It better to at least be making an investment.

I'm currently paying into an isa which gives me 25% added to my income. This helps too. If I can save £9000 they will add £3000.

I know t all sounds complicated but owning my own home is very important to me. And the only way out of living in an area I don't particularly like no into a much nicer one.

About time the government made people who hit an earnings bracket move out of social housing and either rent privately or buy somewhere.

Op, you earn £33k which is a LOT of money. Do a favour for someone else who was in your position once and give up the tenancy, private rent and save for a deposit. You've already said that your current home needs £2.5k of work so you clearly aren't short of a bob or two.

I'm not sure why anyone is wasting their time saying how wrong RTB is on this thread. I clearly disagree so I don't know what people think it will achieve. It might be worth making a new thread about the rights and wrongs of the policy.

I'm not giving up the tenancy

I'm going to buy my home.

Do people actually think I'm going to decide not to because of what they write online? 😂😂😂😂

No chance!

I don't mean that to be rude. But it isn't going to happen.

you know in five yars house prices coul go up and u still wont b abl to afford to move?

you might aswll stay where you are and just pay the rent

my late dg bought his flat thought it would b great then lost it when his business went under-u dont gt much help to pay a mortgage rathr than rent

I only wrote this thread to see which discount I should aim for.

I have never ever felt any guilt about exercising my right to aquire. I think the scheme is a great ideal and improves areas of social housing. It also means people can afford to buy their own home who otherwise would struggle to do so.

People certainly shouldn't be allowed to use the help to buy isa on an already discounted rate! That's an absolute piss take.