Shared owership

Wickwar

Been offered a shared ownership house by my housing association,I've been with them for 20 years no problems at all.But reading about shared ownership it's a complete minefield for the tenant. Has anyone on here done this & what's their 2p's worth.

libf

Personally, shared ownership has working out brilliantly for me.

You need to take a close look at the conditions (no renting out, sale must be at market value, etc) and see if they will work for you. Also check the mechanism by which the rent increases.

Elfbert

I'm the same as Libf - working well for me. But I would say it depends where in the country you are, how the rent part is controlled, what sort of building it is, how long you intend to stay there, how much prices are going up (or down) where you are, whether you can buy 100% in the end - lots of considerations!

SmlSave

I think they work extremely well if you are expecting your income to rise in the future so that you can buy more equity in the property or move into a larger place.

Research the extra fees involved so you are aware of them. Not just the rent, service charge, ground rent but also the cost of selling in the future such as the management pack and that solicitor fees are normally higher for shared equity

Wickwar

We are both mid 40's & I highly doubt we'd buy 100% we live just north of bristol.Our other option is stay where we are & when the right to buy comes in buy this place we've in since 1996 as id imagine after discount we'd get it for a good price & it be 100% ours but due to age id think time was against us.

Kynthia

Shared ownership is good for people who can't afford to buy but need more stability than private rentals and want to stay put for quite a while.

They can be difficult to sell, can be overpriced and not increase your equity as much as other properties, there's lots of fees and hoops to jump through to sell, and you generally can't rent them out. So if you're hoping to make money on it, or might need to move anytime soon then it's not the scheme for you. If you want to stay in your area, would like to be able to decorate your home, and are fed up with landlords moving you on with 2 months notice, but you can't afford to buy privately then it might be the scheme for you. They all differ though so do your reading first.