Shared Ownership, Single Mum, Minimum Income Needed

[Fairy2015]

Hi there

Can anyone help advise if there is a minimum income needed to get shared ownership? I have a deposit which could buy a share and was wondering how much I would need to earn to be eligible for the scheme.

I have a young toddler (am a single mum), so really don't want to have to go to work yet, but would rather invest the money I have rather than pay private rent which is very expensive.

I assume if I am not working I can get housing benefit to cover the rent share??...

I would appreciate any advice from anyone who is/has been in the same situation as me.. xx

Bump

With the greatest respect, you'd be best to speak to the housing association running the scheme as policies will differ for each one.

I've never looked into this, but I think hb is normally denied if you have savings over about £16,000 I think having a sizable deposit tied up in property would stop you being able to claim. I could be wrong, I'd like to be.

I have tried speaking to the associations and am chasing my tail! They say I need to give them my income details to run it through a calculator, problem is I don't know what the income details are!

The £16k savings only applies to capital that you can access and not the property you live in thankfully.

I need to buy somewhere soon so that I can invest it, otherwise they will class it as income as it's just sitting in my bank at the moment. And if I don't invest it, it will just get used up on rent/bills until gone which is a waste x

When I say I don't know what my income details are, obviously I have bread and butter income now from benefits and maintenance, which will obviously be too low. But it's like they want me to get a job first, then apply, which is a waste if it's still too low.

Catch 22

You need to be able to get a mortgage to cover your percentage the house. So a £200,000 house if you buy half you need to be able to get a mortgage for £100,000 minus the money you have as a deposit.
Your income must cover the mortgage and rent to the HA, there is no actual limit to how much you must earn.

It's often horridly high. I'm one of a couple who both work and rent privately but we earn about half the min requirement for any shared ownership properties near us

www.sharetobuy.com/faqs/shared-ownership-am-i-eligible-#collapse2

It says: Benefits will not be included as income when assessing your affordability, therefore it is unlikely you will be accepted for a shared ownership property or be able to find a mortgage.

and

There is no set minimum income allowance for shared ownership. Each property will have its own valuation and the housing association will determine the minimum income required for that property to be affordable to people earning under the maximum allowance threshold. If you have a large amount of cash to put down on a property this may make the minimum income more affordable.

So it sounds like you need an income, and benefits won't count as one.

Thanks for the info.. I wasn't aware of that.

It's a pain as I have enough share to buy a minimum share for a couple of properties, so I would not need to get a mortgage unless I wanted a bigger share. So the only expenses I would have to pay is rent, which in some cases is £200 which I could just about cover.

Well if you don't need a mortgage then it might be different. You really need to talk them through your current circumstances, including the savings.

If you have enough cash then they might consider you, certainly a relative of mine bought a 25% share with cash and only has income from pensions and benefits.

My HA gives "brownie points" for certain criteria, i.e you're looking for a home after relationship breakdown, you're a HA tenant already, or you couldn't meet your housing needs on the open market.

Thanks sillyoldfool and Hamiltoes v interesting feedback I wasn't aware of x