Shared Ownership - Your Experiences

mkgirlchick

On behalf of someone else:


1. Pros of Shared Ownership
2. Cons of Shared Ownership (why to each con you list)
3. Ways to Improve Shared Ownership.


Thank You.

trialshannah1

Pros (and probably the only pro!) Very low deposit as you can still put down 5% and (depending on price) stamp duty isn't applicable so it is very easily affordable when it comes to upfront fees to get your foot on the housing ladder (We bought our 1 1/2 bedroom flat 4 years ago and, all in (incl legal fees) spent just over £7,000 meaning I ended up being the first person in our family to own our home (OK not outright but it's a start)
Cons -
- You have all the bad points about renting such as asking permission to do any works etc yet you are responsibly if anything goes wrong such as boiler breaking.
- Always consider Service charge as this will be on top of the price of your mortgage (we pay £250 a month for a Gardner and cleaner to come once in a blue moon and do a less than average job).
-The housing association has first refusal on selling your home and it can be a very long tedious wait for them to even get an advert up online for it.
- The main con I have is that we are now in a position that we would like to get a house instead to start a family but we can't afford to buy outright but to get another shared ownership property you have to have first sold your property (which basically means the only easy way to buy another SO property is to move back in with parents for a while!)
My advice would be, if you are going to go shared ownership, do it with the view of staircasing to buy the whole share and own it outright before considering moving on.

Ways to improve - make it easier for people wanting to go from a flat to a house but still use the shared ownership scheme.

Sorry for my long response! But I hope it helps let me know if you have any further questions on the subject