Is shared ownership a good idea?

jacques_chirac

opinions4u wrote: »

It can be a trap if you want to move on at a later date.

That's not to say it's a bad thing. But I'd encourage you to seek out the pitfalls that occur further down the line (and posts from those who've been there) and understand them.

Surely that would apply to any house?

kingstreet

leveller2911 wrote: »

The HA will check to see that you can afford to buy a SO property in the same way that the banks will. Many of the SO houses will be advertised on the openmarket and there is a criteria you have to meet.

It's actually the responsibility of the local HCA HomeBuy Agent and there's a set calculator used by all of them, up and down the country to work out the min and max share to be purchased.

The HA we work with gets us to do it, even if the mortgage is being done direct, or via a different broker. I've done two in the last week. cheeky !!!!!!s!

opinions4u

jacques_chirac wrote: »

Surely that would apply to any house?

Moreso for shared ownership.

Harder to sell due to smaller potential market. Covenant restrictions. Difficult to remortgage due to limited lenders interested. Additional costs in staircasing. Only share from half the house price appreciation, so when you want to move to a "proper" house you don't have enough equity to do so (two edge sword in a falling market, admittedly).

jacques_chirac

opinions4u wrote: »

Moreso for shared ownership.

Harder to sell due to smaller potential market. Covenant restrictions. Difficult to remortgage due to limited lenders interested. Additional costs in staircasing. Only share from half the house price appreciation, so when you want to move to a "proper" house you don't have enough equity to do so (two edge sword in a falling market, admittedly).

You can't generalise like that. I sold my SO property the day it went on the market, and had the choice of three buyers. Identical properties on the market at full value were still there months later, as first time buyers could not afford them.

leveller2911

kingstreet wrote: »

It's actually the responsibility of the local HCA
HomeBuy Agent and there's a set calculator used by all of them, up and down the
country to work out the min and max share to be purchased.





The HA we work with gets us to do it, even if the mortgage is being done
direct, or via a different broker. I've done two in the last week. cheeky !!!!!!s!

We looked into buying the house we live in from The HA, they would only sell it on a SO basis.I wasn't impressed but thought well at least we could staircase to 100%. Was going to buy 70% and then the other 30% in 3 yrs time. All worked out, mortgage in place. Had to send SA302,s off to HA along with proof of deposit, savings account details etc so they could check the affordability. All going great until they phoned me up to say "its just come to light" there was a "Rural restriction" on the property so we could only ever own 80%......

They couldn't organise an orgy in a Brothel . This was Santuary Hereward Housing Assoication (named and shamed).:D Had to make endless calls just to get my SA302,s and saving accounts details back from them.

We pulled out of the purchase and I was livid with the HA as they had 6 weeks to look into the legal side.I also felt like we wasted the mortgage brokers time.....