Shared ownership, H2B, no property? Need advice.

RichardTheComic

Limits in London and south east are higher I believe. Alternatives would be to buy in the name of the highest earner only.

greensalad

RichardTheComic wrote: »

Limits in London and south east are higher I believe. Alternatives would be to buy in the name of the highest earner only.

We are in the South East a few miles out of London.

My partner is on £35,500 is that enough do you think? What's the rate of salary they ask?

Sucks though as this basically means I would have no claims to the property, not sure I want to go that route.

Don't know what else we can do, accept we are life-renters?

I actually don't mind that much about renting for life, I just wish LL's offered more flexibility. I hate not being able to put a picture up or ever truly feel "at home" and constantly fear that they could put the house on the market and boot us out at any minute.

libf

greensalad wrote: »

My partner is on £35,500 is that enough do you think? What's the rate of salary they ask?

Depends on the cost of the property. And apologies, I didn't know there was a national upper limit (being a single applicant, it wasn't an issue for me.)

If you want to buy together then I would look at Help To Buy EL.

greensalad

libf wrote: »

Depends on the cost of the property. And apologies, I didn't know there was a national upper limit (being a single applicant, it wasn't an issue for me.)

If you want to buy together then I would look at Help To Buy EL.

Yes, it's £60,000. We're on £62,000.

It's so frustrating. I have worked out if we dropped our entire budget down to the bare bones (no phones, no holiday, no TV etc) we still cannot save enough to keep up with the increase of property prices. Largely caused by our rent being high. I even looked into dropping down to a cheaper property in the area but the price difference is negligible as we're already getting a good rate on our property it seems, in comparison to others.

The only option is to move up north, but my partner's specific work is only available in 3 locations in the country and none of them are Northern. And then I wonder if we could earn enough even up north to buy, because our salaries would be reduced (and OH would need to follow a different career path).

RichardTheComic

If you can focus on repayment of the H2B equity loan part as soon as possible, this could be a good option, but weigh it all up carefully.

greensalad

libf wrote: »

This assumes that you need to pay interest on the loan. If you would be able to save enough during the first 5 years to pay off the loan, perhaps in conjunction with a remortgage, then you would not need to pay any interest.

Having looked into H2B for a similar priced property to the one I found worked for us under shared ownership (now impossible), it looks like our monthly mortgage cost would not allow us wiggle room to save towards paying off the equity loan from the government before the 5 years is up.

RichardTheComic

Well without prying greensalad - where do you live now - and where do you want to live? There must be a few options available to you.

libf

greensalad wrote: »

Having looked into H2B for a similar priced property to the one I found worked for us under shared ownership (now impossible), it looks like our monthly mortgage cost would not allow us wiggle room to save towards paying off the equity loan from the government before the 5 years is up.

Are your wages likely to go up over the same time frame? The interest on the equity loan is likely to be lower than the rent you would pay for shared ownership for a number of years too.

To steal from one of kingstreets posts:

kingstreet wrote: »

FWIW Halifax SVR is 3.99% not 4.99% although no-one knows what it might be in a few years.

If the worst comes to the worst, the rates on the equity loan (interest-only of course) are 1.75%, 1.87%, 2.0% etc if inflation is running at 5% and not the current 0.1% per annum.

I currently pay about £200/month shared ownership rent. Once I move to my HTB property I'll have the 5 years with no interest, and then it will start at £70/month. By then I should have had a pay increase and will have paid off my student loan.

However, if you will be struggling to save with HTB then perhaps it would be spreading yourself too thin. Look at cheaper properties? As I said earlier, you do not need to find somewhere that will last you 20+ years now.

greensalad

libf wrote: »

However, if you will be struggling to save with HTB then perhaps it would be spreading yourself too thin. Look at cheaper properties? As I said earlier, you do not need to find somewhere that will last you 20+ years now.

I am looking at 2 bed properties (flats and houses, house preferred).

I know I probably shouldn't be looking at 2 beds, but that is what we have now. There are no cheaper properties.

I just did a quick look (for example) and the cheapest place I could find was a horrid little concrete bungalow for £250,000. A similarly grotty one bed would shave off £50k but that's still £200,000 which would give us wiggle room to save but would require us down-sizing from our current rented flat to a very pokey one-bed. I guess it's an option though.

greensalad

RichardTheComic wrote: »

Well without prying greensalad - where do you live now - and where do you want to live? There must be a few options available to you.

I currently live in Woking, Surrey. Expensive I know. I'm originally from Kent. My partner works between London and Guildford (mainly London but gets his travel expenses paid) so that's how I ended up here.

I love my job but I can find work more easily, though I need to be near a city (preferably one with a strong technology sector).

For my partner to stay in his current role we would need to live either in Gloucester, London or Leeds (or commutable) as that is where he can work. He has quite a specific role.

Leeds would have to be our option I guess. We have no family there. My family are all in Kent and his are in Gloucester. I am not against the idea of moving up North (have lived there before and so has OH) but it's more the fear of not having a support network especially when you have a home! Not knowing a soul up there and struggling for work worries me. Plus I have always loved the idea of having children but I would want my own Mum close else we are totally on our own if we do decide to have children (in years to come, of course). My Mum is single and alone and I am worried about moving too far away from her as I have no brothers or sisters who can look after her as she gets older. She is only 50 now so no issue but as the years go by I want to be closer to her.

If we did move to Leeds we would both take a salary cut too so it might negate any money saved by moving there.

We have considered moving back to Kent as it's a little cheaper than Surrey and there are family connections plus easy to commute to London.