Shared ownership - worth it?

Knalchemist

I know very little about mortgages and buying properties. Me and my partner are looking to buy a property, however due to our low income (£30k between us) and where we live, our options are extremely limited.

We have come across quite a few new builds, which are on a 'shared ownership' scheme. IE you buy a % of the property, and pay rent on the other %, purchasing the rest when you can / want.

Does anyone have any experiences with these? Does anyone on here live in a shared ownership property?

We have recently started saving for a property, and are planning on purchasing in about 2 - 3 years, when we have around £10k saved. Will this be enough?

chanz4

You pay as much as a mortgage, but get all the repair bills

brit1234

Rents and service charges rising faster than RPI and far harder to sell. Lots of extra fees every time you want to do anything and you don't own it technically.

Building_Surveyor

Ignore any bias posts by negative people who frankly don't have a clue. Brit who is infamous for casting negative aspegens on everything.

In the 3 years of planning you have spend that time doing your own research and coming up to your own conclusion. Shared ownership works for some people, others it doesn't. Just like traditional home ownership works for some, others it doesn't. Each have there own pitfalls. I personally know someone on shared ownership there rent has not risen nor do they pay an extortionate service charge so anyone who suggests that all of them are like this is talking nonsense. Explore all your options, don't rule anything out until you've researched all angles.

Kynthia

It is good for those who cannot afford to own any other way, want to live in the property very long term and prefer the security it offers over renting. However it can have it's downsides such as being very difficult to sell, clauses that prevent letting it should you need to (which is combination with being difficult to sell can mean hardship and distress for some people who get trapped) plus the new builds (like all new builds) are likely to drop in value for the first few years.

If you can afford to own outright then I can't see why you would buy one. Also I would suggest at looking at resales rather than new build, particularly if you want to resell in less than 10 years.

Knalchemist

Thank you for all your advice and suggestions.

I will start to look into things myself and see what kind of things I can find. Someone I work with just purchased a 3 bed house for 150,000 around my area, so I suppose I would just have to look around properly once I have a deposit.

Thanks again.