Anyone know about Ownhome

brown6

Before everyone starts moaning about how much of a stupid idea equity loans are, I know how they work. So please save your time.

At the end of the day if the house market does eventually go back up - i'll owe more but the house will be worth more. If it falls I will owe less and the house is worth less. Simple.

I'm looking to go into this scheme with my work colleague and as money permits either make overpayments against the mortgage (if house prices rise) or buy back equity (if house prices are low or the same)

But my real question is what type of property we would be able to buy. Theres two of us needing two rooms - I make it at least a two bed. lo.
Has anyone had any experience of this process and can say that you can get a 3 bed?

Or unlike mychoice homebuy (mychoice - my !!!!) can you actually choose?

Mathrin

Hi there

I too am looking into the homebuy scheme, as far as i have heard they allow you one more bedroom than you currently need. So if your single or a couple they'll let you get a 2 bed, if your single or a couple with one kid then its a 3 bed.

To be honest i dont like the sounds of this policy, if it is correct?! Firstly they are effectly restricting your choice of property! Secondly what are the rules on box rooms? Who decides if a box room is big enough to be a bedroom?!

On the face of this the scheme is excellent if you have no deposit (like me) as you can essentially save up a deposit while owning the house and paying off the mortgage. But i have also heard that they set you limits on how little/much you get a mortgage with the coop for. Which again effectively narrows your choice of property.

Cant get any advice/info from ownhome until i have the telephone interview, which was an 8 wk wait when i called! So the situation for me is moot until i have the interview.

Sorry about the rant, but i hope that helps

superfran_uk

Mathrin wrote: »

To be honest i dont like the sounds of this policy, if it is correct?! Firstly they are effectly restricting your choice of property! Secondly what are the rules on box rooms? Who decides if a box room is big enough to be a bedroom?!

The surveyor will decide and what they say goes, so it's best to steer clear as by then you have paid for a survey. We nearly did this but in the end had to back out just in case. It's a lot of money to risk.

Am going through this scheme at the moment. Our mortgage has been agreed and we've just had an offer accepted on a house, so hopefully given a few months I will be in a position to offer advice but not at the moment.

If you want to know anything specific please pm me.

iscrimger

The reason the +1 room policy exists is to stop the scheme being abused. It doesn't make sense for a couple of 2 buying a house with 4 bedrooms when a family of 4 might be struggling to find a property of that size.

I'd be wary of this OwnHome scheme. As I understand it you pay the 'OwnHome' amount back with interest over time.

The Scottish Government have gotten it's version of the scheme correct. They provide say 30% of the property value as the deposit. The sum only has to be paid back when you sell the property and regardless of the sale price of the property you pay back 30%. If the property loses value or gains value the government gets 30% of whatever the sale price is. I am unsure what happens if you don't plan on ever selling!!