NI Co-Ownership Housing Scheme - I need out!

Birdie23

Hi All,

Thanks everyone for your replies. TBH I've been putting off ringing NICHA as I'm sure I'm not going to like what they have to say. At the time we thought it was a real life saver as we never could have afforded to buy a house at the 2007 prices and I did ask the question about what if prices went down and I was told by our agent who helped us apply to NICHA that if the prices went down that we would benefit but I don't think even he thought prices would go this low leaving us in a negative equity situation.

Anyway thanks again everyone, I think I'll just bite the bullet and ring them!

drew2k9

good luck, let us know how you get on!

lesleym75

How did this phone call go ? I'm in similiar situation with co ownership but in no rush to move, would be a great time to 'buy out' but raising the extra may be difficult!

LullaBelle

Hi,

Does anyone have any more information on buying out co ownership? We are looking into doing this at the minute. Does it cost much to get out?

A.L.D.A

Could you rent the house out here and rent one in England? The housing market here is dead. It is not because of lack of demand but because people cannot get mortgages. Major housing shortage developing in NI. If you sell now you are selling at the bottom of the market (I think!). Mind you I doubt if the house values will bounce back up to £220,000 any time soon.

motorguy

LullaBelle wrote: »

Hi,

Does anyone have any more information on buying out co ownership? We are looking into doing this at the minute. Does it cost much to get out?

You pay them the market value for their share, from memory when we did it.

saverbuyer

A.L.D.A wrote: »

Could you rent the house out here and rent one in England? The housing market here is dead. It is not because of lack of demand but because people cannot get mortgages. Major housing shortage developing in NI. If you sell now you are selling at the bottom of the market (I think!). Mind you I doubt if the house values will bounce back up to £220,000 any time soon.

This quite frankly is misleading. The problem with the housing market her is NOT the lack of available finance but still unrealistic prices from the resell market. Houses ARE selling at the right price and to people who can save DEPOSITS. Just so you know DEPOSITS are a means for a bank to see that you can organises you financial affairs and can AFFORD what could be the most expensive purchase of your life. There is no major shortage of house in NI. It has been reposted today there are 5000 ghost house here which need to be finished by developers (approx the size of Cookstown) and also 60000 vacant houses.

There is no evidence to suggest the market is bottoming out.

Please this person could be in this situation because they rushed in during the boom. Do not give inaccurate and misleading advice which could potentially cause further hardship for them or others.

saverbuyer

You pay back a % of the current market value. So if you bought a 50% share at the beginning you would give 50% of the sale prices.

For example.

NICHA value the house at £100,000 you have a 50% share. If you want to sell up you would owe NICHA £50,000.

Scheme like these help no one.

noops_2

Birdie23 wrote: »

I was told by our agent who helped us apply to NICHA that if the prices went down that we would benefit

I believe that you were told you will benefit because you could 'staircase' i.e. buy back part of your home for a lower rate.

So you purchased a home for £220k
You: £143k
Co: £77k

Now that the house is worth £130k it would cost you only £45.5k to buy the remainder of your house back from co-ownership.

Therefore you would have bought the house for £188.5k

If you compare that to the value of you house increasing then it would have cost you more than then original £77k to but back the 35% share from co-ownership, and you would have had to pay more than the £220k in total. By going with co-ownership you have spread the risk with them.

Unfortunately if you want to sell this is of little comfort as the real benefit is for ppl that want to remain in the house and increase their share, for anyone that wants to move they're just in less negative equity than they would otherwise have been.

tara747

A.L.D.A wrote: »

Could you rent the house out here and rent one in England? The housing market here is dead. It is not because of lack of demand but because people cannot get mortgages. Major housing shortage developing in NI. If you sell now you are selling at the bottom of the market (I think!). Mind you I doubt if the house values will bounce back up to £220,000 any time soon.

To be fair, the housing market here is dead because of:

1. Unrealistic asking prices - only sellers who are cutting their prices a LOT are managing to sell

2. Lack of demand - buyers are pretty sure that prices are going to keep falling and don't want to end up in instant negative equity. This is the case with OH and I - we have a huge deposit but are unwilling to pay inflated prices, and are convinced that house prices are going to keep falling. So far, we have been right and houses can only get cheaper (see article): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14377692

3. Lack of finance for those few who do want to buy. This is mainly due to lack of deposits and, as long as people fail to save a deposit, this situation will not improve. I agree 100% with saverbuyer's post below, especially the highlighted bit. I hope that the banks never return to irresponsible lending - that's what got people like the OP into this mess. The lower house prices go, the better imho.

saverbuyer wrote: »

This quite frankly is misleading. The problem with the housing market her is NOT the lack of available finance but still unrealistic prices from the resell market. Houses ARE selling at the right price and to people who can save DEPOSITS. Just so you know DEPOSITS are a means for a bank to see that you can organises you financial affairs and can AFFORD what could be the most expensive purchase of your life. There is no major shortage of house in NI. It has been reposted today there are 5000 ghost house here which need to be finished by developers (approx the size of Cookstown) and also 60000 vacant houses.

There is no evidence to suggest the market is bottoming out.

Please this person could be in this situation because they rushed in during the boom. Do not give inaccurate and misleading advice which could potentially cause further hardship for them or others.