Shred Ownership / Help to buy - which option.

CluelessFTB_2

Hi All,

My partner and I are hoping to buy a prorty this year. I have a near perfect credit history my partner has 3 missed CC payments from last year and what looks like a default. :mad:. I earn £29k my partner £23k. We have £8500 saved and are putting away £1200 a month between us. I have £750 on an interest free card I pay off monthly and my partner has £1800 on a Barclaycard paying ridiculous interest - don't ask!

It is looking unlikely that my boyfriend will be able to get a mortgage due to the issue on his credit file being from last year. So I feel we have 2 options.... Obviously we are going to keep saving.

1 - Go for a new build, mortgage in my name and go for Help to Buy also to top up the extra I couldn't get on a mortgage in my name alone. We are hoping to get a 3 bed - this will be on one of the new estates locally to us.

2 - Shared ownership.... a 2 bedroom house has come up in my village for 50% share 50% rent. Normally I wouldn't want to go for this option but it would be the only way we could stay in the village unless we buy an older property.... which for my village will be near on impossible for our price range!

Is Shared ownership as bad as all the reviews etc on here say?

I know we need to go and speak to a broker and see what they say options wise. Are we best to see a Help to Buy broker?

Many thanks for reading.

kinh

Shared ownership comes which too much hassle in particular when it comes to selling. The new build how much will it cost?

CluelessFTB_2

We are looking at New Builds with a max of £195k - hoping they will take an offer if the mortgage is just in my name.

tori_s

Based on personal experience I would say help to buy as at least you own the property outright then. Shared ownership always sounds dodgy to me, but I don't have a lot of experience of it. I would say to speak to a mortgage advisor too (they should be free to use). You may be surprised as even with your boyfriend's history his income may be more of a help for you getting the mortgage than his history is a barrier (if that makes sense!). We had this 3 years ago when applying for our first mortgage and we applied jointly even though my husband had previous debt problems. We got a mortgage that I would never have been given on my own, and 3 years on his credit rating is better than mine! Grrr, not sure how that happened!!

CluelessFTB_2

Thank you Tori - I really appreciate that reply

gazter

Shared ownership is a nightmare. When we were looking for our first home in 2003/4 we looked at some. The advantage was that we could manage a house bigger than what we could buy outright, but the downsides far outweighed that benefit.

You are often entering a one way agreement with the housing association/builder. They get a rent, as a proportion of the house, but have no obligations in terms of maintenance. If the value of the house increases the cost to buy out the share also increases, and you are entirely at the mercy of this organisation. When times are tough they can ramp up their rent and you are stuck.

Some local authorities (mine included) have a much better system of section 106 agreements for low income housing. Our first home is one of those, we lived here happily for nine years.

Their low income scheme is much better. You own the house 100%, no fannying around, but you get a discount on the purchase price, it can range from 10% to 35% (ours was 20%), with a covenant in the deeds that this percentage discount is passed onto the next buyer.

Pretty simple.

brit1234

CluelessFTB wrote: »

Shred Ownership / Help to buy - which option.

Neither they both have big pitfalls.

You are saving £1200 a month, keep that up and in a couple of years you can buy without these dodgy schemes.
:beer:

CluelessFTB_2

Thanks for the replies - brit1234 - we would do but we are living with my mum and don't want to out stay our welcome!