Flat outright or house shared ownership - Help!

[Houseorflat]

2 kids. Not a garden person. Have lived in flats and houses.

If you were us would you buy a large flat outright own front door and communal garden plus parking in good area OR 30% shared ownership new build house with garden on a new busy estate with parking in same area.

House.

Flat. No brainer!

Flat, no question! (And it's what we did).

Flat, provided the ground rent is reasonable. Shared ownership seems to be fraught with issues and doesn't seem to get people on the ladder as promised. In a market downturn they're very hard to sell.

flat

Outright always

Id want to know more about the get out on the house. I've not seen the contracts before but you'd still need to pay rent right on top of your mortgage? , and can you sell whenever you like? What rights do they have as 70% shareholder, can they ever force you to sell etc?

If all of that is ok for you and you know you can make money on the house, then it works.

In the flat you know any increase in value is directly yours.

Flat.

I am very pro shared ownership. I lived in a shared ownership flat for years and had no difficulty selling it. But so should only be used as alternative to rent. If you can afford to buy a suitable home without so, that is usually the better financial option.

Thanks all. Keep the comments coming please!
Service charge/ground rent is the same cost on both.

I would normally say a flat, but there are so many (more) problems nowadays with leaseholds, service charges and legislations (eg the current cladding issue) I wouldn't buy a flat. I've just managed to sell mine and I'm so happy. Not going near one again.

I would do shared ownership (unless of course it's for a leasehold private estate with service charge in which case I would go with lesser of two evils and say flat outright!)

I always thought I wouldn't choose a flat over a house, but in this situation I would opt for the flat.

House. I've just sold my shared ownership house (40%) after 5 years and now have £40K in equity to put down against my next house

I also had 3 over the asking price offers and sold for £4K over the asking price within 36 hours so they are very sellable and you can definitely make money on them!

Agree with TheSoapyFrog
I would normally choose a house and garden but I'd also always go for outright ownership over shared. It's far far better.

I had the same dilemma and bought the flat. Reason being any improvements you make and you get to keep 100% of the uplift in value. Also I think it's easier to sell on a whole flat than a share of a house.

I would go for the flat, provided the lease is of a reasonable length and doesn't have anything daft in it.

Flat is surely better if the prices are similar.

Also house is leasehold same as flat

I'm not sure what happens with shared ownership if you can't work? If you get made redundant or become ill. Perhaps there's some kind of insurance?

Things might've changed now but I remember reading about someone who lost their job and ended up having the shared ownership property repossessed because of rent arrears - and as a result they lost the deposit they'd put into it. They got housing benefit towards the rent part but it fell short of the full rent. It's a worst case scenario but worth making sure you've protected against. If you do go ahead with it.

I would never buy a leasehold house, in fact I thought these had stopped being sold. I would buy the flat.

www.gov.uk/government/news/leasehold-axed-for-all-new-houses-in-move-to-place-fairness-at-heart-of-housing-market

Flat better. Out right ownership so you have no mortgage to worry about

Flat

Flat

Flat

If the house is leasehold I would 100% go with the flat. Leasehold houses are so rare now as full of problems. Stay away. Poison! Although do check out the managing agents of the flat, check their accounts and get a survey done.

Best of luck. I'm assuming it's your first home? Very very exciting 🙂