Shared ownership houses

gazfocus

Starting to make plans for buying a house. We've got just over a year left on our current tenancy so we're looking to set a realistic budget so we can work out what finances we need in place so that we can begin viewing houses towards the end of the year.

What I'm wondering is, what are peoples thoughts on Shared Ownership properties?

Price wise in our area, we could buy our current rented 3 bed terraced house right next to a market town for roughly £100k, or a 3 bed semi further out of town for roughly the same.

Shared ownership's are going for around £70k for a 50% share but the houses are much newer and better presented.

What sort of percentage is rent likely to be on the other 50% of the house?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Shared ownership is a bit pointless when prices in your area are so cheap.

It can make sense for those who live in very expensive areas of the country, but it also has some potential drawbacks.

I wouldn't consider shared ownership just to buy a newbuild, you're better off buying a whole house and doing it up to your tastes.

Running_Horse

If you can afford 100% of a decent house, then do so.

Too many horror stories on here from those that went wrong.

Carl31

Shared ownership takes the worst bits from both ways of living and puts them together. The rent you pay is essentially added interest, as there's no maintenance on the property, like a full renter would receive

ader42

I know people who bought shared ownership and now the rent half gosts them alot more than the morgage half. avoid at all costs.

HappyMJ

gazfocus wrote: »

Starting to make plans for buying a house. We've got just over a year left on our current tenancy so we're looking to set a realistic budget so we can work out what finances we need in place so that we can begin viewing houses towards the end of the year.

What I'm wondering is, what are peoples thoughts on Shared Ownership properties?

Price wise in our area, we could buy our current rented 3 bed terraced house right next to a market town for roughly £100k, or a 3 bed semi further out of town for roughly the same.

Shared ownership's are going for around £70k for a 50% share but the houses are much newer and better presented.

What sort of percentage is rent likely to be on the other 50% of the house?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

The rent is likely to be just a couple of pounds less than half the rent of a 3 bed house that is worth £140k plus service charges on the whole house plus building insurance on the whole house.

I would say multiply your rent by 1.4 then divide by 2 and you would be pretty close. The vendor will give you the exact figure.

Shared ownership is useful if you have £70,000 of cash and are thinking of retiring with no mortgage to pay and housing benefit paying the rent on the other half. Friend of mine has done just that. She now has £6,000 in the bank and gets all the rent paid on a lovely house and still owns property. Although the value of the property won't increase she is comfortable.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Running_Horse wrote: »

If you can afford 100% of a decent house, then do so.

Always the best advice.

Too many horror stories on here from those that went wrong.

To be fair, there has been a bit of a concerted effort from some on here with a vested interest in promoting a crash to over egg the pudding in that regard, as they believe shared ownership helps maintain higher house prices.

Shared ownership works very well for the majority of people who take it.

However if you can afford to buy a whole house rather than just a share in one, that's almost always going to be a better solution.

gazfocus

Thanks for the responses so far. I completely understand the sentiment of buying a whole house instead of half a house. The Shared Ownership houses do look much nicer but I'm not convinced it's worth paying effectively 1.5x the cost of a normal house for it the benefit.

Are mortgages likely to be harder to get for a shared ownership house?

HappyMJ

gazfocus wrote: »

Thanks for the responses so far. I completely understand the sentiment of buying a whole house instead of half a house. The Shared Ownership houses do look much nicer but I'm not convinced it's worth paying effectively 1.5x the cost of a normal house for it the benefit.

Are mortgages likely to be harder to get for a shared ownership house?

It's much more difficult to get a mortgage on a SO house. You would not be able to shop around for the best rates you would be limited to a handful of providers.