Shared ownership property in Lewisham- advice please!

[TurquoiseDress]

So DH are currently renting and have been for some years. We've been trying to scrape together a deposit for a few years.

DH is in the process of selling his property up north so we should have a chunk of cash to add to our deposit soon (fingers crossed).

We recently moved to a rental property in Lewisham- 2 bed, £1600/month- yes, yikes!
Used to live further in but still south London.

Loads of building going on here, high rise flats by the station etc.

We noticed these properties being built & I did some investigating.

They are 3 bedroom houses- The Meridian- market value is £535,000
Selling 25% share initially.

The rent at this proportion is £919/month (!) and there seems to be a monthly service charge of £46, not sure why as I thought these only applied to flats.

Armed forces get preference. We are not but we live in the borough which qualifies you. 101 metres squared in size.

I know that not all SO schemes are the same, but what do people with SO experience think?

DH is of the opinion that Lewisham is def still up & coming, so much building and investment going on, it's worth taking the risk.

I just worry that we would be paying well over the odds for this house, will we ever be able to 'staircase' and increase our share.

What about when we need to move somewhere larger, but find we can't sell or can't move up the so called ladder (I realise that a lot of people are in this position).

Any opinions or advice please?

I think part of the reason we're considering it is that we really like Beckenham very much but it seems way out of our league re affordability. There's no chance to get 3 bed house there.

Re the Lewisham property- confirmed not to have any parking with it.
This further compounds my worry that it's not right for us. Parking seems a nightmare in most of Lewisham!

You can get parking permits from the council (although there are strict rules if you live in a new development).

Really don't fancy going on a parking space search each time I come home from work! Especially having small children with me.

Really hope 60k is not the cut off- almost certain it's not for this development.

Even with our salary combined, with the cost of rent and childcare, there isn't a great deal left over each month...in fact hardly anything!

TurquoiseDress Total household income for shared ownership in London is now £90k as pp above said. It was just that in the FAQs of the link you posted of The Meridien Development in Lewisham, it states min £18k and max £60k household income to qualify. You should query that because it might just be out of date information, but obviously it could be very important!

Just thought I'd update this thread.
Thanks for all the replies everyone!

Well, we're in the process of trying to work out how much mortgage we can get, which will then determine % share & importantly how much rent we will have to pay.

For this particular development, minimum salary for a single person is £71k and joint income minimum is £76k.

We only just scrape into minimum salary bracket. Also looking like we're going to struggle to get even s minimum 25% share mortgage approved.

It seems obvious, but hadn't realised how much the monthly rent affects mortgage affordibilty, but of course it does.

Fingers crossed we can scrape minimum % together, so then they can at least let us view the property.

All a bit depressing but hoping we can buy something, somehow!

Also, we really liked Beckenham but don't think we're going to be able to afford anything we'd like (2 bed terrace/3 bed flat) with a standard 'normal' mortgage.