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

sky_rat

blahblahblah85 wrote: »

Where was this out of interest?
Brooklands 3bed townhouses with ensuite etc were around this and just saw this http://www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/25539681

Thats the exact property I am talking about ! I even rang them today but was told they only have that one property and they wont know until whether it will have HPB until a few weeks after the new financial year. Im on the waiting list for it.... as Im sure many others will be ! It did concern me that they didn't have my details, even though I gave them my details to them a month ago! So they took my details again

sky_rat

arbrighton wrote: »

But if you're out 8 til 8 each week day, that's not going to give you any contact then anyway. If you can't buy where you are now and are so far from work and rarely see her, something needs to change, whether it's the job (including what you are prepared to do), where you live or which way the commute is (i.e. to see daughter rather than to work- you could use AL to take some friday PMs off to see her)

I used to commute round the M25 every friday night and sunday night from where I was going teacher training to see OH for the weekend, it sucked but I did it anyway.

Fortunately I am able to work from home 2 days a week (with the discretion of my manager) and one of those days is a Friday which is only half a day. So I use that time to spend every Friday with my daughter.

I would be prepared to change my career, although I don't know what I would do ! However, I doubt I would be able to take a pay cut and spend years retraining and gaining experience like I have done with my existing career. Especially at the moment when I have a responsibility to financially support my daughter.

sky_rat

I suppose the question I should have asked from the start is...

"Why is the help to buy equity loan only available on new builds? Why cant it be available on used builds ?"

Then I could have gone ahead with the purchase of that 18 month old property instead of having to cancel !

Pixie5740

The mistake you're making is thinking that the HTB schemes are there to help you, the buyer. They're not, these schemes are designed to keep the housing market inflated.

sky_rat

Pixie5740 wrote: »

The mistake you're making is thinking that the HTB schemes are there to help you, the buyer. They're not, these schemes are designed to keep the housing market inflated.

I agree with you about keeping the house prices inflated which is one of the things I don't like about HTB. I would rather the house prices weren't so over inflated but can't see how that would change, because if house prices fell to what they should be then most home owners would be in negative equity. I can't see how it would ever change, it should never have been allowed to get like this in the first place!

GwylimT

So you are more than able to purchase an apartment with green space and parks in walking distance but you don't like them, do you not see paying someone elses mortgage is an extremely poor financial decision when you could be paying your own.

If you only work a half day on Fridays then moving to Northampton wouldn't be a problem especially as you wouldn't be driving during rush hour. My wife often travels between the two mid afternoon and traffic isn't a problem.

Adding 30 minutes to a commute really isn't a hardship if you want to own your own home.

When we bought our ground floor flat it was shared ownership, you had to have a household income of less than £40k and you had to raise at least 5% of the deposit (not a gift), shares were between 25%-85%, we bought 85% and later purchases the remaining and we are now mortgage free.

I know it can be difficult, I purchased my first property at the age of 23 when I was a lone parent, it wasn't a particularly nice house, but I knew it would enable me to in the future secure a better home for my son.

sky_rat

GwylimT wrote: »

If you only work a half day on Fridays then moving to Northampton wouldn't be a problem especially as you wouldn't be driving during rush hour. My wife often travels between the two mid afternoon and traffic isn't a problem.

Speaking from experience when I lived in Northampton for 3 years, I did not find this was the case. Friday afternoon traffic is a nightmare (I am talking from around 3 to 4pm onwards). It seems that a lot of people finish early on Fridays. And the roadworks are being extended from junction 15 and these are due to last 3 years, so that will only make things worse.

When I lived in Northampton and saw my daughter on Friday afternoons, it was not worth taking her back home to Northampton as by the time I got back home and given her dinner it would have been time to take her back to MK.

So I used to stay in MK and try to find something to do (even more difficult when the weather is bad). Sometimes we stayed at her mums house all afternoon, awkward but I did it for my daughters sake.

Now I am in MK I can take her back home on a Fridays afternoon, but if I moved back to Northampton I would have the same issue and this time it would be more difficult to stay at her mums as she now has two young children who sleep in the afternoon.

GwylimT wrote: »

Adding 30 minutes to a commute really isn't a hardship if you want to own your own home.

I disagree, adding a 30 min to a commute that already takes a minimum of an hour (each way) means spending a minimum of 3 hours a day commuting in the car ! It has taken me 4 hours just to get to work before and again the 3 years worth of roadworks just makes it worse still.

spudsofa

It seems like you are unwilling to make any compromises. Have you tried talking to your ex and rearrange the timetable regarding your daughter ? Weekend ? Change of job ? You cannot expect everything to fall into place. Northampton to MK....A509, A508 ?

sky_rat

spudsofa wrote: »

It seems like you are unwilling to make any compromises. Have you tried talking to your ex and rearrange the timetable regarding your daughter ? Weekend ? Change of job ? You cannot expect everything to fall into place. Northampton to MK....A509, A508 ?

I've done nothing but make compromises since separating with my daughters mother 6 years ago. I don't go out, I don't socialise, I don't buy clothes etc. Instead I do as much as I can for my daughter.

There is nothing I can rearrange regarding contact with my daughter. She stays with me alternate weekends (from Friday after school until Sunday evening) and I see her 'every' Friday afternoon, plus some of the school holidays. And thats what I want so its a good thing But there is nothing I can rearrange regarding contact. I would like to have more contact, but as I dont get home from work until late its not possible. And my daughter has a family with her mother so it wouldn't be possible or fair to have her more weekends then I already do.

The A509, A508 is one of the routes I used when the M1 was congested and thats when it would take an hour to get to Northampton, because everyone else would be using those routes to avoid the M1.

And I explained in a previous post why I cant find a local job or change career.

At the end of the day, like most people who rent, the mortgage repayments on a property would be the same as my rent. So rather than pay the landlady's mortgage I would rather pay my own and even a bit more to have a more suitable property, preferably with a small garden.

A quarter of a million pounds is an extortionate amount of money to pay for a small 2 bedroom property. Unfortunately I live in a commuter town for London so I am having to compete against people who earn high London wages.

sky_rat

Well I applied for shared ownership but it was rejected because there were other people who had higher priority than myself.

I was told that some of the things that went against me was:

1 - I am single (i.e. a single application rather than a joint application)
2 - I don't work in the same area I live

Neither of these two points are my choice, thats just life which I have little control over.

So once again, thats another 'unhelpful' government scheme. And these schemes are only in place to keep already over inflated house prices high and push them higher still.

Looks like Ill be paying someone elses mortgage for the rest of my life.