Confused! Shared Ownership- Gvt calculator doesn't match development affordability criteria

annetheman

This seems odd. Maths isn't my strength but the calculator is pretty simple to use - guidance notes from the Gov website:

...There is also an upper limit of 45% of their net wage and 4.5x their gross salary to ensure long term sustainably. These caps are absolute limits and cannot be breached.

I don't think there's any wiggle room. I found I could be lent much more on a regular mortgage than a SO (I've recently had to choose between buying a regular house or staircasing in my SO), but with the cap being £90k income in London, the deposit required at that development would surely mean most people applying might as well just by outright?

On the plus side, their pool being small means you're likely to have time to save up a bigger deposit and go back to your offer, hopefully. 

LondonEast

annetheman said:

This seems odd. Maths isn't my strength but the calculator is pretty simple to use - guidance notes from the Gov website:

...There is also an upper limit of 45% of their net wage and 4.5x their gross salary to ensure long term sustainably. These caps are absolute limits and cannot be breached.

I don't think there's any wiggle room. I found I could be lent much more on a regular mortgage than a SO (I've recently had to choose between buying a regular house or staircasing in my SO), but with the cap being £90k income in London, the deposit required at that development would surely mean most people applying might as well just by outright?

On the plus side, their pool being small means you're likely to have time to save up a bigger deposit and go back to your offer, hopefully. 

Thanks @annetheman. I agree, if you have £90K and a decent deposit, you really might as well buy outright. I'm planning to get a place together with my mum so she is also selling her house, which means we should be able to do the deposit. I do think they are struggling to get buyers for the development because of the salary/deposit requirements so fingers crossed there might be properties left once we've both sold up current homes.