Is shared ownership still appealing, and how can we achieve a quick sale?

[Ellipellimulli]

Are people still interested in shared ownership? Or is a dead path?

We're wanting to relocate and would live a quick sale, any advice?

We are selling our shared ownership property. A 3 bed end of terrace in Aylesbury. Very close to amenities, train station into marylebone, great schools, cafe, drs, a little Sainsbury's etc. Surrounded by fields.
£200k which is 50% share.
Rent and service charge £571.71.

We've lived here for 10 years and really love the community, we will be sad to leave.

In some cases, yes. That’s what I decided after a lot of researching into the advantages and disadvantages of shared ownership. But I share my rented accommodation so I can save quite aggressively to increase my deposit. No way do I want to be stuck paying rent and service charges forever (and those increase every year) for a ridiculously overpriced property just because it’s a nice build and in a convenient location.

They are sold at the market value pice the same as any on the open market.
I do not pay any ground rent or maintenance charges for my house.

And tie up £400,000 rather than £100 or 200,000 ?

No thank you

We don't have the £500 limit. It is exactly as if we own the house. We do all the maintenance ourselves.
I can't really see being able to buy the 40% we don't own but we could down size and sell and still have a deposit of £300,000 to put down something else when the mortgage is paid off.

Nothing wrong with doing your own maintenance. There's hardly anything to do.

I also think they can work well in various scenarios people don’t necessarily think sbout

1. You end up divorced/on your own or with kids - you get £120,00 equity but aren’t a high earner or are older -you either rent and then get no benefits ( rightly) as you have cash until you don’t, you buy somewhere if you can in a not very nice place plus possibly a small mortgage, you use £110,000 to buy your share of somewhere modern and pleasant outright , so no mortgage , maybe still able to claim some benefits and if anything happens job wise you will more than likely be able to claim towards the rent and service charge, whilst having security .

there are some advantages to it, as well obviously some disadvantages - but to me it beats living somewhere not nice and needing loads of work if you don’t have a ton of spare cash or the insecurity of private renting and many of these places will be £1k tops for rent and service charge if you have no mortgage aspect . Try renting privately in many parts of the country for this if you need at least 2 bed place that’s not grotty.

it’s all very well people saying you can buy a 2 bed terrace here in south wales or Darlington for that or wherever, many people have lots of reasons to stay in the area where they are where you can’t get a 1 bed flat under £180k and a 2 bed house is £300k plus and they simply can’t get mortgages at that level.

Do you have no pension or savings? Is that why having a lump sum is so important @Apprentice26

No, as I’ve repeatedly explained I don’t want the children to be left trying to sell our house. I’d rather they have the cash

Is it not very sellable? Not in good condition or location?

I have dealt with three estates, thankfully all properties in good location and condition - selling has been super straightforward

no, it’s an absolute shit hole. I wouldn’t buy it personally.. the ideal scenario would be somebody petrol bombing it but nobody in the family is keen just in case they don’t get away with it

Do you not like your property @Apprentice26 ?

I can’t imagine selling a home I love and settled in and moving to shared ownership flat just because it will be easier for
my children as they won’t need to sell it. It seems rather OTT unless your property is likely to be very difficult to sell and fraught with complexities?

oh. Ok. So in that case sell up asap and have a nice home in retirement!!

Thank you your approval means a lot

Good luck! The joy of having a lovely home, whether owned or shared ownership - you won’t look back. And you’re right, will be a burden off your children if it was going to be very difficult to sell. Win win. I get why you want to do this now!

Having worked for a HA, I can assure you that repairs, renovations, remediation are very expensive and the rent aspect, service charge, as well as lack of care, comes very hard on the bank balance!!

@Apprentice26 I totally get your reasoning as you will see from my previous comments - personally I would keep at that 25 to 40% level as it’s the sweet spot for what potential buyers can often get mortgages for . Is it the most sensible option for some - probably not but in other situations it makes total sense - houses are often better due to low service charges but if not look for one that doesn’t have tons of very fancy facilities like multiple lifts/extensive grounds as it’s often these that give rise to high service charges.

Just checked and yes you don’t pay ground rent for new SO leases. I didn’t say maintenance charges, I said maintenance meaning the ongoing cost of it, mostly out of your pocket.

1. You end up divorced/on your own or with kids - you get £120,00 equity but aren’t a high earner or are older -you either rent and then get no benefits ( rightly) as you have cash until you don’t, you buy somewhere if you can in a not very nice place plus possibly a small mortgage, you use £110,000 to buy your share of somewhere modern and pleasant outright , so no mortgage , maybe still able to claim some benefits and if anything happens job wise you will more than likely be able to claim towards the rent and service charge, whilst having security .

In that very niche scenario @Crikeyalmighty I agree it may be worthwhile considering (and you would have to trust future governments not to change relevant welfare legislation, so that’s an added risk) but the average market value of SO properties is £192.5k. Each to their own but if I had £110k spare to buy a home I would rather buy a slightly grubby freehold house in an average area than put that money towards a nicer SO property near the train station and all the balls and chains that come with it.

The thing is though as I also added, in many parts of the country you simply can’t buy anything at all at those very low levels and if you need 2 beds, definitely not and you may need to stay local for various reasons - whereas you can buy into shared ownership - the other option in those scenarios is Heylo- your move- 25% minimum cash down - shared ownership on the open market ( can’t be flats- must be freehold) up to certain limits depending on income and location-