Owning a student-house

Soot2006

Bad idea with the market the way it is. You just have no idea what's coming round the next corner and could be stuck with a big ugly student house.

There are a lot of repossessed student houses available in the Brighton area - I wonder why?! ... We viewed some of them while house hunting and despite being mostly huge and cheap, we didn't like any of them. No upgrades since the 60s, terrible neighbourhoods, etc ...

On the other hand my mate bought a studio flat for his uni years for about £30,000 ... Just sold it for £90,000 9 years later ... BUT sadly for him, he's remortgaged to the hilt so walked away with nothing ha!

pinkshoes

The £3400 for accomodation is a student loan, and there is no way in a million years that any mortgage lender would let you use a loan as a deposit. They want cash, and they want to know where it came from.

Also, you'll need AT LEAST 10% deposit, preferably 25%. Then there's £1000 for solicitors, stamp duty etc... not to mention the cost of furnishing the house.

Then you can borrow only 3.5x your joint salary, so unless you're all working full time jobs whilst studying, this may be a problem!

Finally, it's compliated enough buying a house with two friends, so with 5 of you it would be nothing but disasterous.

Conclusion: REALLY BAD IDEA!

crompton

Thank-you for your replies folks. As i stated in the OP it was just an idea, and it would be with some financial backing from our parents. The students that would be going into this with me are all friends I have known for nearly 15 years. We can see there would be problems but we were just wondering whether anyone had done it or anything similar. We may still look into it - as I said - just an IDEA. Cheers :rolleyes:

I also didn't inform you as to our financial position and wether or not we are mature students.

Soot2006

I also didn't inform you as to our financial position and wether or not we are mature students.

Well perhaps you should if you are expecting helpful replies?

If you're a 40 yo business man with a successful company who feels bored of life and has decided to do a degree in biology for a change of scenery, then this is very relevant to the topic ...

Jowo_2

Even if the financial position is good and the personal relationships are strong, what you've proposed sounds virtually unmanageable. What happens when you all graduate and want to buy property with your future partners and have kids yourselves but have a financial commitment of this type that impacts future personal plans?

A 1:1 relationship between landlord and tenant can be fraught enough given the complexity of rights and responsibilities where failures on the part of the landlord to comply with legislation can result in criminal offences and civil penalties (HMO, Gas safety, Tenancy Deposit Scheme, tax returns and so on). A 5:5 relationship with a mix of live in/live out landlords over time is unwise.

The current strength of your relationships are irrelevant when it comes to a future dispute - it will quickly unravel. There are umpteen threads on this and other forums that testify against mixing business with friends and relatives in landlord/co-buyer/tenant relationships. You don't just lose an investment, but a lifelong friendship when there are issues relating to arrears and so forth.

Perhaps if you wish to exploit investment in property in the area, a need that you believe isn't being filled and will offer good returns, it should be done by individuals on their own perhaps with the assistance of their parents rather than in a group. For example, encourage your parents to buy you a smaller property that you live in with 1 or 2 other lodgers and manage yourself while you study.

Doozergirl

Soot2006 wrote: »

Well perhaps you should if you are expecting helpful replies?

If you're a 40 yo business man with a successful company who feels bored of life and has decided to do a degree in biology for a change of scenery, then this is very relevant to the topic ...

It's relevant that if the OP still needs help from the parents to buy him a 20% share of a student house at the age of 40 then the OP is clearly in no financial position to own property at all!

crompton

ok cheers guys - thanks for the input anyway. and im not 40 lol.:p