Giving up HA house for shared ownership

[Louisajane12]

Hi everyone please can I have your opinions and thoughts.
Sorry in advance for long post.

We have always private rented , however 3 years ago was given section 21 due to landlord selling , there were no other private houses available so in the end the council helped and we got housed in affordable 3 bed housing association house.

Its on a new build estate and neighbours are drug dealers and criminals regularly police raids etc.

We have started looking into shared ownership on the estate where the section is all SO houses ( no where else in the area offers SO)
We are looking to stay in this town for 10-15 years maybe longer.

The houses in question is identical and would not have moving costs etc.

My biggest worry is obviously I’d be giving up a lifelong tenancy to do this , I’m asking if that is a good idea and if for whatever reason it doesn’t work out would I be re housed ?

We have small savings for the deposit and it would initially be a small mortgage 70k for 30% share and after calculating everything it actually works out very similar in amount of mortgage / rent service charge ,it is similar to what we pay now for rent and service charge total . So I feel we actually would be paying for something at the end rather than ‘dead rent’.

we are early 40s and no other way to get onto the ladder sadly.

I am torn as this place offers security lifelong even though the nightmare neighbours. But SO would offer something in the future especially for our kids.

Has anyone gave up a lifelong tenancy and it worked out ? Thank you so much for reading

I live on a private estate. Far from a brag. Drug dealers 2 doors down. Honestly you cant escape criminals. If they arent directly bothering you I would be inclined to stay in the HA!

I did this last year, bought a 25% share of a shared ownership new build. I don’t regret it at all. My house is nicer, in a better area and just as a secure as my previous property. I didn’t really look into the selling element of SO as I’m planning on staircasing to 100% but I would say do plenty of research on the HA you are buying with. Mines got good reviews so I’ve had no problems but there are some horror stories around - there’s a few good shared ownership groups on Facebook that have good tips on.

What % of ownership can you staircase to? I am looking at SO but would want to ultimately own the house outright, not all SO properties allow this. Also, how are the current SO properties selling? I think you either have to stay at a minimum share (so them easy to sell on) or increase to 100%

As there’s no other way to get on the property ladder and your both the ages you are, I would go for the SO option. And yes, you are less likely to get areshole neighbours in the bit of the estate that’s SO.

I am looking at doing similar OP in the same situation as you, no advice but I am watching with interest.

Yes the houses are available to 100 % staircase but start with is 35% ( although I have enquired if can start higher )
Yes I agree we would only go to 50% and stop if we had to ,but the plan would be to go to the 100 % eventually , I’ve heard it’s harder to sell above 50-60% if you cannot make it to 100%.

Yes with our ages etc we do not have the bank of mum and dad to help so our options to get onto the ladder are very limited and this seems like a good stepping stone.
It is daunting using our savings and giving up the HA rental that’s why I’m not rushing and really thinking it through.
TBH our savings ( deposit ) not much 7k potentially could get it upto 10k by the time we do this , are just sitting there doing not a lot so I think this is perhaps a good idea

This!

Problem with this is that house prices are going up and OP only has £7K saved so it’s unlikely she’ll get a decent deposit for a mortgage even if she carry’s on savings for years unless she gets a windfall. And of course, the older you are, the shorter the mortgage repayments, which is fine if you have a huge deposit.

Will you be able to get a deposit together OP? I don't know if you're on UC but obviously you can only have £6k if you are.

Rather, why not focus on bumping up your pensions instead? Early forties is quite old to be taking out a first mortgage. If you're in a position where you are allowed savings them as a PP said it might come in handy for putting your own kids on the housing ladder.

Yes it’s unlikely we can get a normal mortgage unless win money on something which is unlikely.
Yes we do get a small amount of uc but it’s deducted already due to savings between 6-16k
So we can’t save much more either way .

Is this really worth it? I have just looked at my council’s website and it says that you are extremely unlikely to receive an offer unless you have an urgent need to be housed. My DC’s are teens, some do have Sen/disabilities, so would be interested to know if I should do this? They will eventually inherit a share of a property between them.

I was lucky with my SO experience, when me and DS's dad split up I could only afford SO so I purchased a 2 bedroom flat, I owned 50%. Lived there for 5 years and sold it with no issues, I made a decent profit on it too.

I'd go for it OP!

Thank you all , obviously I’m going to take some more time to think everything through and maybe wait a few more months to try and save a little more but I’m thinking I’ll go for it at least try anyway as otherwise I’d be here for many years with nothing to show for it

I’d go for it. You ended up in a dire situation before because you were at the mercy of a landlord. With this you would be working to own a property which would see you into retirement and be something to leave your kids.

I suppose it depends where you live but I had friends who had the attitude - I won’t get anywhere putting my name on a housing list why bother.
my cousin applied and 5 years later she has a lovely flat which is social level rent and a secure tenancy, if you are not likely to be in a position to buy your own home why would you not at least apply

Thank you, I’ll talk to my children about it and maybe enquire with the council. I do hope that they’ll be able to buy something one day though. It can sometimes be done, one of my friend’s children has just bought a one bed flat, they are in their early twenties, with no help from mum or dad.