Shared ownership in London?

Lizling

I'm also in zone 3, SW London and I was signed up with First Steps when I was house-hunting last summer. I could either get a newbuild studio on shared ownership or buy one of quite a few older 1-bed flats and even the occasional 2-bed flat for roughly the same money without the strings attached. Very few of the shared ownership properties were even available to someone on my salary - which is a little higher than yours is at the moment- most required far higher household incomes.

Realistically, one of the cheapest mortgageable flats around here will cost about £160k, so that's a minimum of an £8k deposit plus fees and stamp duty, which you've got. Take a look at Help to Buy (next January, when it stops applying only to new builds) or local Lend a Hand. Those will effectively give you a 25% deposit, although that would be a loan. That leaves you 75% of the property value (£120k) to find, and to borrow that, you'll probably need to be earning about £30k, which I'm sure you will earn as a management consultant.

neverdespairgirl

marello wrote: »

To elaborate more on my situation: I currently live in zone 3 South West London, my monthly rent is about £800 a month for an ensuite room that's a good size but extremely badly insulated. This winter the room got down to 4 degrees. Ouch! I've looked into similar rooms to rent elsewhere and I'd be looking at paying out £900-£1200pcm for a smaller room. Renting a small flat is a similar cost. My income is £1750pcm so that leaves me no room to save. I do not want to move further out of London as I work immensely long hours.

Why not live much more centrally, pay less for travel, be near all the mainline stations when you need to go elsewhere, and save more?

You can get a room in a shared place for £600 within zone 1 or 2, in the right place.

curedham

morello, sorry to say this but with your priorities and choices you have little options buying in London. Hear what others been saying here, when I started out in London 7 years ago I was earning more than what you're earning now and spending less on my rent. Back then I shared a flat with 3 other guys, each of them earning more and spending less than you. I too work very long hours but still managed to go out and save for deposit.

The most important thing here is to reduce your rent. If I'm taking home 1750/month, I would really aim to spend no more than 550/month on rent, actually scrap that you should aim to spend less than 500/month.