Buying a council home...

seven-day-weekend

PLEASE do not comment on the ethics of RTB, it is the law that people have this right, whether we like it or not, and the OP has asked a sensible question about how to finance this.

To the OP, my mother-in-law bought hers in the 1990s and the Council themselves gave her a mortgage (don't know if they still do this), but these days most High Street Banks will lend the money (depending upon your circumstances).

lil_miss_sunshine

Oh right i didnt know the council did that, will check it to see if they still do...


and thanks

squinty

Not what you asked but................

If you are thinking about RTB speak to the council, and be very wary about companies who doorknock. Some companies make high charges for advice and information that the council will provide for free.

geoffky

a hell of a lot of people end up regretting buying council houses...

poppysarah

SquatNow wrote: »

The introduction or Right-To-Buy was the biggest disaster in Britain in living memory.

The selling off of houses without being allowed to use the money to build new ones was very wrong.

ameratsu

I don't have any strong feelings either way about RTB, BUT - in my area you can spot the people who've bought their council houses a mile off, all the housing stock is being completely revamped - new kitchens/bathrooms, windows and doors and fully repainted, they now look very nice - ALL the "owned" houses dotted about look really shabby now and really spoil the look of the areas concerned.
There has been massive regeneration in this area of North Staffs and the social housing is generally bigger and better quality than all the shoddy new build shoe boxes. I bet the people who bought a few years ago are kicking themselves now.

mirrorimage0

i bought on the rtb scheme a couple of yrs back, a single mum of two kids at the time and went with halifax and got a 100% mortgage which i didnt think i would be able to do. i worked very hard to get my flat but it is a set discount now up to £38000 i believe and you have to be a council tenant for at least 2 yrs, the mortgage company do take working tax credits into account as a wage as well, i dont believe its wrong for the rtb to still exist (look at all the others getting help who arent even from this country) i do believe the council should of been allowed to build more when people did buy though and do up the houses/flats they have rather than selling them on when there is too much work to do.

if it wasnt for right to by i would never have got on the housing property ladder with being a single mum with two young children why should we beexcluded when everything else is being handed out left right and centre

lil_miss_sunshine

geoffky wrote: »

a hell of a lot of people end up regretting buying council houses...

Why is that ?

sreppaw

mirrorimage0 wrote: »

why should we beexcluded when everything else is being handed out left right and centre

Two wrongs don't make a right!

SingleSue

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

My parents bought their council home. If they hadn't, they'd still live there so I don't see how it has denied some layabout from getting a free ride. If they'd bought a house on the open market that would have denied a FTBer the chance to buy.

A 50% discount seems generous but they had paid their rent on time for 30 years and from their own hard-earned money. They had also looked after the house much better than most tenants would.

I still think RTB is wrong but that isn't what this thread is about.

I'm sure that there are many lenders who will find a discounted house price attractive. I think council house valuations lag the real world so may be on the high side. Whether the discount (limited to £24K in some areas) is enough to make it a good decision may be questionable.

GG

Your post is every so slightly contradictory.

You state that your parents bought their council property but then go on about in that doing so, they didn't stop a layabout getting a free ride...erm surely saying that (and bearing in mind your parents were council tenants for so long) you are calling your parents layabouts.

And as for the free ride? You again contradict yourself by saying they paid their rent on time for 30 years from working hard..hardly a free ride is it?


All very confusing....

I would say the majority of those in social housing are not layabouts, do not expect free rides and are thoroughly decent members of society..unfortunately, there is a lot of stereotyping going on in our society, whereby decent members of the community are being vilified because they live in social housing.

As an example, I lived in my own purchased home amongst other private owners, my neighbours were drug addicts who stole the milk from my doorstep.

I then lived in a wholly social housing estate, no drug addicts, most (around 95%) worked albeit in the lower end pay scale but still worked and we were in and out of each other's houses swapping items (with the other persons permission of course!) and had a lovely little community.

I now live in an even mix of social housing and privately owned, my next door neighbours own theirs, work etc yet they are the ones (or their children anyway) who have stolen things from my garden (patio chairs etc), damaged features in my garden, peed in my childrens paddling pools, rip up the kids paddling pools, stolen their bikes and then dumped them where ever they felt like it, egged my front door...the list goes on and on.

Home ownership is not a guide or indicator to how a person/family will behave, you get good and bad in all walks of life...it's just been my lack of fortune to be living next to not very nice homeowners!