Shared ownership home?

[orange-sox]

Anyone got a shared ownership home?

Would you recommend it as an affordable way of getting yourself on the property ladder?

Do you regret it?

OH and I have been looking at rental properties, and I stumbled upon some shared ownership homes that work out at the same price, plus of course we own a part of the home, so at least the money is going towards our future... some of the local schemes don't even require you to pay rent of the other portion of the house - that part is paid back when you come to sell the home!

So I've never really come across this before, and don't really understand the ins and outs of it - ie is it like renting a property in that you're restricted with decorating etc (I didn't think it would be, but OH seems to think you might be).

Thanks in advance

 

[Jemma_x]

Weve been looking at doing this so will be keeping an eye on this thread to see what i can find out about it

 

[Blah11]

I've just bought my house with something similar to this. We got a 30% grant and our mortgage paid the other 70%. When we come to sell we just pay the scheme 30% of the selling price regardless of if it made a profit or loss. We are the outright owners and its only our name on the title deeds. Its really just like having a different mortgage with another company cept you dont pay it monthly.

 

[Blah11]

oh and in 5 years time we can buy the house outright if we wish

 

[AnnaHughes]

We live in a shared ownership house, there are pros and cons, but it suits us.

Basically, DH bought a 50% share of the house 10 years ago, total house value £57k, therefore our share/mortgage £28k (hindsight is a wonderful thing, should have bought it all!)

Now, our house is worth £135k, and so we have half (£67k) making about £40 equity.

for us, we pay £140 per month rent for the other half of our house, which includes:

Rent
Water
Buildings insurance
Service charge for the grounds maintenance (gardens mowed and hedges trimmed)

We have thought many times about buying the other half of our house, but a mortgage for £70k would cost us more than the rent we are paying ( a lot more) and we don't believe that the house prices are ever going to increase enough for us to make this a worth while investment

What I am trying to say is, that for what we would pay for a mortgage of around £90k ( if bought at current market prices), we get a £135k house as the rent is cheap.

Unfortunatly though, the housing association are like 'sleeping partners' and if your boiler breaks/patio breaks up, it is your FULL responsibility to pay for the upkeep. For us, we are allowed to decorate etc to your wants, (we even pulled a horrible bricked walled fire place out and replaced with a modern fire) but all this is at your expense

Sorry for the long reply - guess the short reply is, that it works, the idea is to help people get on the property ladder - but gives you all the responsibility of owning your own home in full

 

[Always&4ever]

I did this before I married my OH, and I regret it, when it came to renting it out we wernt allowed to because we only owned 50%, next time i'd buy outright!

 

[mell242]

We had a SO house for 6 years but which we sold and are now renting. The scheme has it's pros and cons. At the time we were so desperate for our own home that we were amazing when we were offered a our house. The house really wasn't our dream home in any respect but we wanted to have our own place.

I would say that it's a good idea if you love the house. I have learnt from our experience that just because you own a home (well, 50% in our case) it may not make you happy. We were lucky because the house doubled in value in the time we were there so when we sold our share we gained. We are renting a wonderful place now, in a lovely area and although it's not ours we are so much happier in this place. It feels like a home.....not just a house.