50% Equity Share....advice

[BoysBoysBoysAndMe]

Thinking of buying a home with 50% equity share. Any drawbacks? What do I need to know?

Also, if I sell my current home with 50% equity share. What do I need to know?

What should I be wary of? What are the drawbacks? Good points?

Any first hand advice very appreciated.

Hi
I own a 40% share of my house, the other 60% is with a housing association.
It was great for us because as we had quite a bit of deposit, we pay less per month on or house than we would if we were renting. There was no way at the time we could have afforded even a 2 bed house at the time fully owning it either.
We have been here 3.5 years now and it is really too small for us. So thinking about moving and can see some disadvantages to the scheme: 1) have to market it for at least 1 month with the HA first, if they can't sell it it goes on the open market 2) the HA have the house independently valued, so both of these will slow down the house selling process. There are also other down sides sch as - can't make any alterations without HA approval and despite only owning 40% or whatever you are 100% responsible for the maintenance of the property (although you only need contents insurance).
Long answer - but I would say go for it if you couldn't afford to fully own anywhere suitable, also better if it is with a housing association (not developer) and that you will stay in place for a few years at least as it could be a lengthy process if you may need to move quickly.
If with a developer I would think carefully as I think they are using part ownership as a way to keep house prices high and you may need to repay the part you don't own a few years later.
Good luck!

Things may have changed but a few years ago we wanted to buy a shared ownership property - 20% would be owned by the local council through a HA and couldn't ever be sold to us due to a covenant. Our solicitor put us off because of the fees and complications this was all going to cause us.

However, if we'd had the option to ever own outright we may have gone for it. I was also wary of rising HA rents as they are (were) linked to RPI and not CPI hence going up a lot with inflation.

Thanks for the replies. It sounds a bit of a faff doesn't it?

We've found a fab house we'd love in an area we want to move to, and as I'm a SAHM at the moment, and only considering working PT, then we can't afford a much bigger mortgage. So the 50% equity opportunity sounded ideal.

Maybe not. Will have to keep looking!