Shared ownership property

[fruitqueen]

If I were interested in a shared ownership property for sale was was featured on the estate agent's website, and I found I could actually afford whole ownership, would I be able to purchase the whole property instead of merely the shared portion?Or is a shared ownership property strictly only on a shared ownership basis?

I have a shared ownership property and recently enquired about selling, they sent me a brochure and it mentioned selling 100%, but I wasn't aware this was an option and had thought any buyer would need to buy exactly the share I own and pass all the eligibility things. Sorry that isn't more helpful, but no harm in ringing the agent to enquire - they may refer you to the housing association to check.

When we sold our shared ownership flat we owned 50% and it was sold as 100%. If buyer had wanted 50% that would have been an option, but buyer would also have to meet housing association criteria.

Alternatively you could buy the share and purchase the rest at a later date. This is called staircasing, there are sometimes restrictions on this (eg can't buy extra share in first year). Advantage of this might be avoiding stamp duty up front. Disadvantage would be having to pay solicitors fees again in the future when purchasing more. Cost of future staircasing would depend on independent valuation at that time. So if prices go up your share is more valuable to sell on but it will cost your more to staircase, if property prices fall you could have a bargain in future when buying the rest of the share.

We sold our shared ownership property to someone who also bought it as a 50/50 share. It did seem to take quite a bit longer than if it hadn't been shared ownership, but we made a profit on our 50% which enabled us to buy our house so worked out well for us in the end.

Are shared ownership properties normally council flats and what are the general requirements of the housing association to qualify to buy ?

Usually housing association rather than council. It used to be a requirement for all new build developments to have a proportion of affordable housing, usually shared ownership (sadly no longer the case).

Requirements are usually your income (eg earning too much for council house but not enough to buy outright) and usual credit checks/references as you will be renting the other share from the housing association.

You aren't in the South West are you? I'm currently trying to sell my shared ownership house .

For ours you have to earn less than 60k, and more than 15k I think. Got to be checked by HA, not council. We have a house, most 2 beds here are apartment s but you do get houses.

With ours you have to buy the share on offer (30% in our case) then you can staircase until you own it all but you have to do it in no more than 4 steps. When you sell you have to give the HA first refusal at buying it back if you own 100%.

If you can afford 100% then why do you need to buy a shared ownership? Why don't you just buy on the open market? Shared ownership properties are not cheaper for the full amount.

Crapbag-because the house i was looking at was advertised as 50 % shared ownership but the full ownership would have been within my budget. Unfortunately, it doesn't say that that is an option. I have scouted around the area and it seems that that is the only one available for sale but on a shared ownership basis.

In that case I would buy the 50% then just staircase the other 50% later on. I don't know if you have to be there a certain amount of time before you can do this, find out from the HA but at least you know somewhere down the line you will be buying 100% rather than paying rent and mortgage.