Shared ownership now vs smaller freehold house in 6 moth

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So me and my partner are currently living with my Dad while we save for a house deposit. We hit our target at about the same time my Dad announced he is moving across the country (and as soon as possible). We were in a position where we could start house hunting too and were making some progress when the banks pulled all the 10% mortgages. Yay, Covid! We were then going to do Barclays’ Springboard mortgage when they changed their affordability criteria and put that out of reach too. 

We’ve had a look into shared ownership (S.O.) but new builds are too expensive and the idea of leasehold doesn’t fill us with joy (due to selling complications down the line). However, there is a S.O. resale available which is much more affordable per month and will allow us to buy a house that’s bigger and in a really nice neighbourhood - which we couldn’t afford on our wages if the banks bring back those 10% mortgages (full market value of this house is £260,000 and the Housing Association has a good rep). We can staircase it up to 100% but it would still be leasehold. 

If we don’t go for this S.O. house, we’re going to be saving up for another 6 months or so to reach the 15% we’d need to buy a house (for £200,000) - hopefully the banks don’t pull those too... My Dad will move before the end of the year so my partner and I are having to move away from each other while we save.

So, and sorry for the waffling, my question here is: is the shared ownership resale (3 bed) really worth going for or should we just hang tight and save for a few months so we can own somewhere freehold, 100% ours (but it’ll only be a 2 bed)?

NinjaTune

Smaller freehold house.

Salemicus

Strongly agree.

ninja_chinchilla

As an owner of a shared ownership flat, hold out for the smaller freehold house.

RelievedSheff

Smaller freehold house every time.

There have been some 90% LTV mortgages come back onto the market this week. Don't give up hope just yet

HanPop

We had a shared ownership house in the past and for us it worked, but what bothers me about the shared ownership resale that you’re looking at it that even if you staircase to 100% you will still be leasehold. That’s a big red flag to me for you not to buy, whereas when we staircased to 100% we owned the freehold so there was no problems caused by this when trying to sell.

newsgroupmonkey_

Holy thread revival!

However, are you FTB? If so, Boris's latest deal might be for you.

rik111

Shared ownership, none of the benefits of owning combined with none of the benefits of renting. It’s a lose / lose.

annetheman

As someone currently buying Shared Ownership, I would buy freehold house if I only had to wait 6 months, deffo!

S/O is for those who have no better option (e.g. anecdotally, spent £60k on AST rent in 4 years, would rather spend another £60 on 50:50 equity-building and rent in another 4 years).

All house buying - or leasing, with S/O - is a gamble but S/O is a gamble on worse odds. It just needs to be better than your alternative.