Currently looking to buy our very first property (exciting)
We are in North East London (Zone 3) - we have a deposit of 35k (possibly will be 40 - 45k by April as we are expecting a gift of some money from my Mum after sale of Gran's house)
We could get a 2bed house / Maisonette for about 350 - 380k (some of them are bloody awful and need a lot of work - however some look totally liveable and can be improved in time)
The other option is shared ownership (we would aim to buy as large a share as poss - probably 60% initially with an aim to staircase to the 100% eventually!
We live in a new build at the moment (renting for 1300pcm) been here for 4 years and its amazing - the bills are cheap as it is so modern and eco - lovely & warm (rarely need to put heat on) It has an air filtration system so the laundry dries super fast and the place never gets damp! It is sound proof and I feel really safe inside the apartment block (Husband is away often)
I feel we have gotten used to living in such a nice shiney clean place that the thoughts of a fixer upper terrace house, where it will probably be colder, maybe hard to heat - we will hear the neighbours & just not as cosy as our current place (last terrace house i lived in had a big rodent problem)
Shared ownership / new builds are more expensive and you are paying service fee's for management company on top of your mortgage repayments.
We can only borrow up to 380 anyway so we couldn't buy a shared ownership outright it would have to be through a scheme!
What would yo do in my situation? We are not in a huge rush - we have deposit safe and won't need to touch it and can continue renting until we find the right place - but we are hoping to ttc later in the year and would be ideal to have moved before then!
Help - I've no idea what i'm doing hahah!