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Buying where you rent? Confused!

7 replies

Instagrrr · 19/07/2019 19:03

So we’ve been told by our financial advisor that there’s an incentive for tenants to buy the property they are currently renting which means some of their deposit can be met and made up to the 5% needed to buy? He’s apparently done this with a few people recently and it’s worked well. He advised if we did this, then used a tracker mortgage and overpaid by a certain amount for about 6/7 months we’d be at a point of 90% loan to value at which point he said we could then fix at a lower rate or look at buying something else?

The house where we are renting is too small really, it would be out of budget to extend and the roof is too shallow for a loft conversion. The 3rd bedroom is a box room so we will need to move regardless within the next 2/3 years either way (with all the associated costs of buying and selling then anyway). There isn’t much scope to improve it as the only thing that really needs work is the kitchen and it needs new carpeting throughout.

Firstly has anyone heard of the above scheme? Apparently we wouldn’t be tied in and could sell at any point after we buy. Secondly, my concern is we would be buying a house which is already too small for us, nearing the top end of our budget only to need to move in a few years time anyway?

Financially the incentive sounds amazing, but I can only see it would be worthwhile if we were planning to stay and not need somewhere bigger imminently?

Original plan was to buy a house with more space but that needs work and fix mortgage to stay for at least 3-5 years.

I’m so confused about what to do, I emailed the landlord earlier to see whether she’d consider selling which now I’m wondering if I should have?

Ideally we want to do what makes best financial sense with the above considerations? If anyone can explain to be in layman’s terms what the above means then please do Flowers

OP posts:
AwkwardPaws27 · 19/07/2019 20:07

You need to work out the % contribution with what you already have, vs the costs of selling and moving in 2-3 years. I'd be concerned that a presumably 1-5% contribution may not be enough to make it worthwhile (I don't know about the scheme so can't really advise on that, but when we sold our flat and bought a house the costs for estate agent and solicitor was about 3% of the flat value).
Have you had a monthly figure for a 95% mortgage? When we had a 94% mortgage it cost us more than renting the equivalent as the interest was very high. Would saving that extra for say a year bring you much closer to having 5% anyway?

Instagrrr · 19/07/2019 20:55

We are only a couple of months away from 5% anyway?

He said we’d be silly to not at least consider the scheme as we are getting at least a percentage paid for us for no extra cost.

I feel like I got a bit swept away with it all and didn’t really grasp it 100% (my fault not his)

OP posts:
Shelley54 · 19/07/2019 20:59

I know of no such “scheme”. I think he’s talking about the landlords granting you a gifted deposit which was all the rage a few years back. That would be up to negotiations with your landlord and would limit the number of lenders

But regardless, if the place is too small then you don’t want to buy it do you?

AwkwardPaws27 · 19/07/2019 21:01

If it was a longer term home it would be a great idea - but if it's can't be extended and you'd need to move after two years, I'd make a spreadsheet of costs to work out if it will actually save you money. Would the second home you buy be over the stamp duty threshold?

Instagrrr · 19/07/2019 22:04

We will be under the stamp duty threshold.

I feel sick having contacted landlady, it probably wasn’t the right thing to do so quickly without understanding it all. What if she now wants us to move out if we decide not to buy? Confused

Ugh. It does sound correct about the gifted deposit thing? I struggled to find it online anywhere but he was sure he’d done quite a few recently.

My mind is boggled. Adulting is hard Blush

OP posts:
Pipandmum · 19/07/2019 22:11

I doubt your landlady will want you to move if you don’t buy. One of my tenants wanted to buy but I had no reason to sell - I’d have just used the money to buy another property to rent out and have to do pay extra stamp duty on top. So unless she was planning on selling anyway I wouldn’t worry about it.
But I’ve never heard of the scheme you mention.

verystressedmum · 19/07/2019 23:16

No I've not heard of this scheme check that it actually exists before going ahead.
I did hear of some potential plans for tenants to buy their rental property to give landlords tax break on their capital gains or something like that and this tax relief is split with the tenant for their deposit.
But I'm pretty sure this has not gone through (could be wrong though)
Check thoroughly before you do anything.

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