Help to buy equity loan.... very unhelpful !!!

AdrianC

You say an hour up the M1 to work? Well, what about looking for a house part-way? Say, Northampton?

513 <£200k, 2+-bed properties in N'pton. 575 <£220k. 1000+ within 10 miles.

Hoploz

This thread just backs up the fact that you have to get on the ladder as soon as you can, at the very bottom rung if necessary. If you leave it and wait till you have a family you miss the boat.

I am a similar age, bought my first flat in 1999 on a low-ish salary. As it happens I used a housing association at the time to get shared ownership at 70% then bought the rest a few years later when my salary began to increase. (Maybe you could use shared ownership? Have you investigated this? Then you could be one of those people you complain about who get it all handed to them via housing association?)

If I had wasted money renting for the first however many years like you did, instead of buying as soon as I left university then I would probably have missed out too. As it was I knew I had to buy and I now reap the benefits

sky_rat

AdrianC wrote: »

You say an hour up the M1 to work? Well, what about looking for a house part-way? Say, Northampton?

513 <£200k, 2+-bed properties in N'pton. 575 <£220k. 1000+ within 10 miles.

Been there and done that.. I lived in northampton for 3 years. It made contact with my daughter difficult as on a busy rush hour friday afternoon (and to some extent sunday evenings) it could take an hour to do those 20 miles. And now they have 3 years of roadworks so its likely to be worse still. Again I would have to reduce contact with my daughter so its the case of weighing up whats more important. Being in my daughters life as much as possible whilst she's still young, or reducing contact with her to make the commute and house buying easier. I have worked hard to have a close relationship with my daughter so she has been my priority

sky_rat

Southend1 wrote: »

Housing association properties aren't necessarily for people "on benefits". You could look into purchasing a share of a property via a housing association if you can't afford to buy without assistance in the open market.

This is what I have found:

- There is one 2 bedroom house and three 3 bedroom houses on a shared ownership basis
- Eligibility Critera: Applicants must live or work in the Milton Keynes local authority. Priority will be given to existing council and HA tenants, and MOD personnel.

Southend1

sky_rat wrote: »

This is what I have found:

- There is one 2 bedroom house and three 3 bedroom houses on a shared ownership basis
- Eligibility Critera: Applicants must live or work in the Milton Keynes local authority. Priority will be given to existing council and HA tenants, and MOD personnel.

Take a look here: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Milton-Keynes/shared-ownership.html

AdrianC

sky_rat wrote: »

Been there and done that.. I lived in northampton for 3 years. It made contact with my daughter difficult as on a busy rush hour friday afternoon (and to some extent sunday evenings) it could take an hour to do those 20 miles.

<shrug> Fine. So just the four hundred and twenty properties in MK, then.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Milton-Keynes.html?maxPrice=220000&minBedrooms=2&retirement=false&partBuyPartRent=false

Angie_B

You still haven't said why you are not looking at any of the 386 properties in MK which are available at under £200k? Plenty of them have good access to the M1.

I would recommend getting on the ladder with your own/your parents money and forget about the equity loan, especially as there are so many properties in the area in your price range. You do know that the equity loan is only interest free for the first 5 years. You will have to pay interest or pay the loan back after that. If you have been struggling in life up until now, is it going to be any different in 5 years time? Are you going to get to 5 years from now and find your can't afford to handle the increase as the interest on the loan kicks in?

silvercar

We have an offer accepted on a 2 year old property that I thought was cheap compared to the new builds that are being sold on the same development. I put this down to the fact that new builds attract a premium but after reading this thread it could well be that the H2B scheme means that there is less demand for re-sales.

sky_rat

Angie_B wrote: »

You still haven't said why you are not looking at any of the 386 properties in MK which are available at under £200k? Plenty of them have good access to the M1.

I would recommend getting on the ladder with your own/your parents money and forget about the equity loan, especially as there are so many properties in the area in your price range. You do know that the equity loan is only interest free for the first 5 years. You will have to pay interest or pay the loan back after that. If you have been struggling in life up until now, is it going to be any different in 5 years time? Are you going to get to 5 years from now and find your can't afford to handle the increase as the interest on the loan kicks in?

Those 386 properties you found:

- I am only looking at the east side of MK, not the west side. In rush hour traffic it can take at least 15 min to get from one side of MK to the M1. This may not sound much, but when you then have another 50 mile commute up the M1 (with 3 years of 50mph limit roadworks) its just increasing my commute even more and its bad enough as it is.

- I am only looking for a small family 'house', not flats/apartments. I have lived in an apartment for the last 18 months and I hate not having a garden, especially when my young daughter stays with me.

- I wasn't keen on shared ownership as its still part renting but I am now looking into it again. I seem to recall that shared ownership was given priority to key workers etc ?

- I don't have the time (having a long commute and being a single parent) or spare cash to decorate and make home improvements... thats one benefit of a new build. I would rather rent until I find something I like than rush into buying something I don't like

sky_rat

silvercar wrote: »

We have an offer accepted on a 2 year old property that I thought was cheap compared to the new builds that are being sold on the same development. I put this down to the fact that new builds attract a premium but after reading this thread it could well be that the H2B scheme means that there is less demand for re-sales.

I found the opposite, the 18 month old property that was on the same site as the new builds was for sale at the same price as the new builds ! I offered £10k less and it was accepted, but like I said, without the help to buy equity loan I had a £50k short fall so had to cancel.