Shared ownership..are we making a mistake?

Mickygg

You need to answer jbainbridge..... Is the £10k worth an extra £10k to you! If not then you need to decide whether you are ok paying a premium but for no extra gain to you.

broccoli25

So much good advice, which I really appreciate. Windofchange, you are so right, and it makes me cringe to think that I am considering giving in to the madness, and I am angry that we are hard working people who have been saving for years but still cannot afford to buy a house.
I am still waiting to find out what exactly the improvements were! I have a feeling we can try harder to negotiate on it. Thanks again

NobodysChild

:T

Windofchange wrote: »

Help to buy, shared equity, government backed mortgages, key worker etc are all vehicles the powers that be are using to keep this whole thing afloat just a little longer. Instead of helping us all out and letting property fall to levels you and I could afford, they are protecting their buddies at the top of the pyramid from losses. As you can probably tell, it makes me angry. A functioning housing market shouldn't need a dozen or so props to allow the middle classes to buy somewhere to live.

I feel sorry for you as all you want to do is have somewhere to raise a family, and due to the past decade or so of greed and stupidity, you cannot. Who knows what prices will do in the future. I guess if it suits your budget and allows you a decent place to live then it's your call. For me personally, this madness cannot continue forever. The world is drowning in an ocean of debt, and something is going to give sooner or later. If the money you are spending is worth it for you so that you can paint the walls purple and hang a picture up, then so be it, but for me, this situation cannot go on much longer, and the fallout is going to be huge.

:T So many good points.

I think it's an utter travesty that people have to pay such astronomical prices for property these days, and the only option (for many,) is to rent privately, live with your folks for life, or wait an eternity for social housing! OR as the OP is doing, go for shared ownership! I wouldn't go for it personally, as I think there are too many negatives that have already been outlined. However, the OP, like many others, don't really have any options if they want to buy. It's kind of annoying that you are responsible for repairs though! The people who arrange these shared ownerships schemes like to make sure that everything benefits them, don't they?!

In the late 1980s, you could buy a 2 bed semi in my area for about £30K, and converted into todays money, that is about £70K. Yet, that same house, is £145K - £150K. So unfair and so wrong. How is anyone supposed to buy now?! In addition to this, wages are less than they should be too. I was bringing home £140 a week in 1987 for a secretarial job. (35 hour week.) In today's money that's about £350! No way would a normal job pay that now!

No wonder people can barely afford to live now, let alone buy a house.

Back in the late 1960s, my parents bought their house on my dad's wage alone! Try doing THAT these days: buying a house on one wage. Fat chance.

Snakey

Do you have family there? If it's just friends... you can make new ones, as can your kids. You're clearly all nice enough people to have been able to do it once, so I wouldn't have any worries on that score.

I think that sometimes people limit their own horizons without meaning to. Pick a town or two outside of London where you would be able to commute to wherever you work now, do the maths (i.e. how much would you have to pay for commuting - if you can't get similar jobs locally - because that'll be money that will no longer be available to pay a mortgage/rent), and book a few appointments to see some properties there.

If, once you've seen what you could have 100% ownership of, you still want to stay put, then so be it - at least you've made a fully informed choice.

(I have no advice on the shared ownership thing that hasn't already been given.)