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Original poster

shared ownership houses

14 replies

everynameisbloodytaken · 21/03/2015 11:10

I have to sell my house next year when my son turns 18 as part of my divorce agreement. My DD will be away at university for most of the time. Unfortunately I don't think I can get a mortgage to buy a house in this area.

Has anyone got any experience of buying a shared property house that they can share with me, as I am clueless as to how they work.

OP posts:
catslife · 21/03/2015 14:17

If a house or flat is 50% shared ownership you will take out a mortgage for the 50% share. The other half will often be owned by a housing association and you pay them rent to cover their share.

LornMowa · 21/03/2015 17:30

Check the any agreement carefully. I know someone who wanted to move from her one bed place as she and her partner had had a baby but she was tied to the valuation that the housing association's surveyor came up with. So for example the flat was deemed to be worth £100K and she owned 50% and would have been happy to sell for £45K but was forced to market it at £50K and no one wanted to buy it at that price.

She was also liable for 100% of the repairs despite owning only 50%.

MoreBeta · 21/03/2015 17:38

Don't do it.

Some schemes you own 50% but are liable for 100% of any loss if the house value falls below the original purchase price.

More to the point if house prices go up you do not participate in 100% of the upside. In other words you are taking all the risk of a market price fall and not getting all the potential benefit of a rise.

You also will pay 100% of the upkeep. They are very bad deals and I have heard from a local estate agent it is very difficult to sell when you want to move - if not impossible in our area where they were pushed hard a few ears ago just after the financial crisis.

Pipbin · 21/03/2015 18:20

A friend of mine owned one and found it very hard to sell.

shakemysilliesout · 21/03/2015 20:26

Avoid. I know it feels like its better to own something even if it's just 50% but I can only agree with pp. they often only let you use approved work men and have service charges.

CrapBag · 21/03/2015 22:39

I completely disagree with the above.

We had a shared ownership property for nearly 6 years. Sold last year. They are difficult to sell through the housing association as they barely market it but when their required 6 weeks were up we went with an EA and it sold within a week. The price ended up being the same as when we bought it so no profit but no loss either. Yes we were responsible for 100% of the upkeep of the house but nothing actually went wrong. It was a 20-25 year old house. We did pay for new windows but this was because we wanted to as the old ones were 20 years old and bit drafty, nothing different to what you would do if you owned your home outright.

Service charges are for flats, not houses and they aren't that much per year. Plus the rent part includes your buildings insurance too. We also were not required to use approved workmen, we could use whoever we wanted.

It was far preferable to renting and the constant feeling of insecurity and shit landlords that we could never rely on. At least we were free to decorate and should something have gone wrong we didn't rely on someone else to sort it. After having to move 7 times in 7 years (and 2 of those we were only in for 5 months) it was welcome and gave stability and we felt very settled for the first time.

Original poster
everynameisbloodytaken · 22/03/2015 20:06

Thank you all for your thought... for me it will be a lot less than renting 100% and will give me and the kids a stable base.

I am having nightmares about selling our home this time next year and I can't think of any other option...

one more question. .. are they for first time buyers only or can anyone buy one?

OP posts:
CrapBag · 22/03/2015 20:11

Anyone can apply as long as you meet the criteria, not earn over 60k, earn over 15k, be able to get the mortgage etc.

LaurieFairyCake · 22/03/2015 20:15

The one I want you have to earn over 69,000 a year and the rent and management fees are over a grand a month Hmm

It's been on the market a loooong time Grin

CrapBag · 22/03/2015 20:38

What! Surely if you earn that you can afford to buy outright and no one who needs a bit of help with buying can afford that a month, no wonder it's been on for ages.

We were paying £420 a month for a 2 bed house including buildings insurance. Renting that would have been about £525 as there were some in the street up for rent and all the houses were the same so ours was really cheap.

LaurieFairyCake · 22/03/2015 20:52

No Crap, it's in London Grin

If it's still on next year when I move there I'm buying it (we don't earn 69k but if you put more of a deposit down then the need for greater salary drops)

cooper44 · 22/03/2015 21:23

just to add to the above my first flat was shared ownership and I never had any issues at all. It went up a lot in value (was in central london) and selling was a bit of a pain but only because of the housing association stuff and them setting the price etc. But because of location it sold within a week anyway.
I basically had a gorgeous central London flat as my first property which I couldn't have afforded without shared ownership. I owned 80% so my rental to them really wasn't that much. It was with L&Q.
They were brilliant with any maintanence issues - fixed faulty stuff immediately in common parts or the exterior of the building.

CrapBag · 22/03/2015 21:31

Ah the salary makes more sense then Laurie. Smile

Original poster
everynameisbloodytaken · 22/03/2015 23:13

Thanks everyone. .. I feel a lot happy now... fingers crossed theres one free this time next year ;)

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