What’s better shared ownership or full mortgage?

[Jadethedragon1990]

Hi Me and my partner thinking of going for a mortgage or shared ownership what experience have you had with them ? Which is better

If you can get a mortgage for the whole property then of course that is better as all the money you pay goes towards paying it off. With shared ownership you also pay rent.

If you can get a full mortgage then I would always do that. Shared ownership properties will not be freehold, and as most are new build properties will likely have service charges to pay as well.

A friend had a shared ownership property and it was difficult to sell on, but was able to in the end.

Definitely mortgage if you can.
shared ownership can be hard to sell on, and there are usually restrictions on eg fitting flooring, having pets etc.

Mortgage is better as it’s your house to do what you want with, free will to change, extend, sell etc. Shared ownership a stranger (usually a company) owns a percentage of your house and you pay rent on it. Usually other monthly charges too.

As others say, all things equal, buying outright is a better option. In my book shared ownership is a halfway house where one should be looking over time to buy out the rented portion.

If you need to claim Universal Credit at any time you can claim the rent on shared ownership. Other than help with mortgage interest as a loan there's next to no support for homeowners.

if u can, avoid shared ownership. i have heard horror stories - not all, but some!

Shared ownership gives you all the responsibilities of full ownership without the benefits

SO Can be ok if you have no other options.

If you can buy without SO do it.

I've had several friends with homes purchased under shared ownership - dating over about 20 years in different areas of London.
All have had problems trying to sell and move on - currently one person has had hers on the market for about four years, has to pay (annually or biannually maybe) for a new valuation/sellers pack - I'd avoid if you can

I would only choose shared ownership if you have literally no other option.

I'm kind of surprised you're asking the question. There are no advantages at all having a shared ownership property over somewhere with a mortgage. Shared ownership is only if you can't get a mortgage and you're desperate for a secure tenure.

I woukd never advise shared ownership... too hard to sell in future.

We are shared ownership, and after years of privately renting we’ve found it to be a good solution. We pay our rent to a CIC, not a private landlord, so there’s no chance of them selling their share of the property. There is the option of staircasing whereby you can work towards having full ownership of the property, and in our case it would also become a freehold property once fully owned. I think shared ownership new builds have a good chance of selling to be fair, which is what we have, and then if you decide to go down the route of selling your share you have a better chance of being able to get a full mortgage on something else seeing as you are no longer first time buyers. When we tried to go for a full mortgage all the properties available to us were old and knackered and in need of renovation, which we didn’t have the money for. We didn’t even have 100% chance of getting the properties as there was a chain. Our new build had no chain by contrast and it’s very energy efficient.

https://nearlylegal.co.uk/2008/09/shared-ownership-midland-heart-with-benefit-of-transcript/

Worth a read

SIL has 50% shared ownership for last 26 years, she has had to pay for all up keep house, new boiler, heating, bathroom etc, yet when she sells they get 50% of current market value. If she were to buy extra %, she has to pay all valuations, solicitors etc and buy at current market rate, so only worth doing if you can buy big % chunks. It would be a last resort for me.