Shared Ownership

Bargain_Rzl

Dummie wrote:

Open Market HomeBuy - this offers an equity loan to people in priority housing need.

You were looking for the catch - that could be it. It depends entirely on your HA's definition of "priority housing need". All HA shared-ownership schemes have different eligibility criteria - for example, some are available to keyworkers only, some give priority to existing council and HA tenants, others (like the one I'm going with) have wider eligibility (in my case, I qualified because I am a first time buyer currently living and working in a certain shortlist of London boroughs and unable to afford a "suitable" property on the open market) ... Of the HAs near me, those which offer Open Market Homebuy seem to do so exclusively for "priority" candidates - which could mean keyworkers, existing council tenants etc - and depending on what you do, may exclude you. You need to research your eligibility.

KayEdwards

The Housing Assn I have applied to also has those criteria, fortunately as a nurse I should be ok. Most HA's define a nurse keyworker as a nurse who works for the NHS - I work for a charity that does work on behalf of the NHS - I explained this and they agreed that I should be able to apply. The NHS is no longer short of nurses so this category may change in the futue.

Kay

Bargain_Rzl

And I should add that the "priority housing need" issue is probably not governed by how charitable the HA is feeling when they release any particular scheme ... There are publicly funded schemes (i.e. government initiatives) available exclusively to keyworkers, and in schemes which make use of such funding, the eligibility criteria will be pretty limited. For example, the building I'm moving to has 10 flats, all offered as "affordable properties" by the same HA, but whereas eight of them are ordinary shared ownership properties funded by the HA, the other two are publicly funded (i.e. the HA receives goverment money towards recovering costs) and so while they are virtually identical in their cost, terms end conditions etc. to the other eight flats, the sale of these two is restricted to key workers only.

lynzpower

Open Market Homebuy as far as Im aware is only really open to a) key workers ( and Kay, you may well be eligible so good luck to you) and to those vacating a council property or on council homelessness waiting lists.

thats why not everyone goes for them, they are not eligible

izoomzoom

Hi

We are in the process of buying a SO house, and have to say that it has been a long long haul, partly self inflicted.

First heard of SO 2 years ago. Applied to all HA (about 5/6) that covered our areas and then waited and waited. Were notified of a couple of houses but these were either too far away / not suitable / too expensive / bad area. All in all, over this period we probably looked at 10 houses, and were offerred 3. Two were last year and we decided to go for the one, so let the other go.

Personal issues resulted in us pulling out of this purchase just before exchange (and in hindsight we dragged our feet at every step because it just wasn't the house for us). Then there was nothing for nearly 9 months and we waited and watched and waited (one place was built and ready but it took 3 months for the HA to get the keys) and then we weren't accepted for a number of places (our housing need was less than other applicants) and we soooooo wanted those places.

Now finally, we found a re-sale that we liked and went for it and it appears that there wasn't much competition (probably none at all) so we were offered it and we signed our mortgage application today.

All in all, new build properties have huge interest and thus competition is steep and from our experience a new build's rental is not as competitive as a resale. Eg two places were were after were both £185,000, but new build had rental of £250 whilst re-sale (about 10 years old) was only £150. Both were up for 50% shares.

Anyway, we are excited that we are finally getting there, but it has been a long haul (10 houses in two years is not a lot).

Best of luck, whatever you decide.

KayEdwards

Good luck with your move izoomzoom, well done for getting closer now )

izoomzoom

Good Luck to you too, hope you find a place soon.

lynzpower

excellent point there about resale rents, i hadnt thougt of that, Im about to stick my 2 year old SO flat on the market ( next 2 weeks with a touch of hard graft :rolleyes: ) and I think the rental side of things might be good for me;/ my potential buyer

andy30

I work at a Housing Association and with the Open Market Homebuy Scheme there is no catch it is a government run scheme but you do have to be either a council/housing association tenant or on a council waiting list, its the governments way of getting people out of council houses and off waiting lists. You only pay the 25% when you sell the property or you have the option to buy the 25% back when you are in a more financial position. Once you are approved with a HA you can go on the open market and start looking for a property.

SilverScooby

I work for a housing association, and my advice if anyone's been approved for Open Market Homebuy before 14th August is to get on quick and find a property, and aim to exchange by 1st October!

HAs have some discretion on the 1st October date, but none at all on the 14th August deadline

There's a new version of the scheme coming out on much worse terms for anyone approved after14th August- half of the 25% equity loan will come from one of 4 building societies, and they may charge for this.