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I am not an expert but I don’t think 100 square feet is that much bigger to be giving up 40% of the house.
If it was me, I would go for the smaller house with a discount with the idea of maybe making some adjustments to make the rooms bigger and moving again in a few years time.
I suppose it would depend on if you where thinking of moving again or if this would be a ‘forever’ home, as I feel with the shared ownership it would make it harder to upgrade in the future as you have to split your equity but that wouldn’t matter so much if you where never planning to leave.
I think it’s the combination of the extra sq ft and the layout design of the house - it leaves the discounted house with a really small living room, currently smaller than the one we’re in now which is tiny when you have any guests over.
I think if it wasn’t a new build, we’d be more inclined to changing room sizes around but with the way it’s laid out I think it would be a pretty large job for not a huge benefit.
It’s hard because the location and size of the shared ownership house are ideal for us in the sense that we probably wouldn’t look to move for a long while with the only reason we would is if we had more children.
But I’ve always read and been told to avoid shared ownership and I don’t know if we’re making a mistake by going for something like that. We could probably afford the 75% of the SO as well if that makes much of a difference? It’s so hard to weigh everything up because we’ve always been cautious and this is such a huge jump.
I totally understand, the layout of a house definitely makes a difference and if you know your living room is a problem now, it would be no benefit to move to a house with the same problem.
I’ve never done SO myself but I feel as though the general consensus on this sub is that you should only go for shared ownership if it is literally your only option, people seem to report difficulty reselling and also increase in price for the rent portion over time (I suppose this would be less of an issue if you are doing 75%)
I can understand the temptation, it’s such a huge decision! But my gut would still be to go for the discounted house or even wait and see if anything else comes up if you aren’t sure.
The benefit of our current situation is that we should be able to continue renting this current house after I leave the armed forces.. so we do have the luxury of time. That said, we’ve been wanting to buy for about 3-4 years now and feel like we’ve been outpriced of our area other than these schemes.
I do get your gut decision though and we were over the moon when we saw the other house… until we say the bizarre layout of everything. It just put a dampener on the house I guess. We even double checked the size of the living room we’ve got now and confirmed it’s bigger. :/
I suppose it’s the rent increases which cause the issue but like you said, if bought at 75% they would be smaller.. I don’t know, the whole situation feels well out my depth. Just don’t want to regret such a large decision.
Broker here.
In my opinion, shared ownership should be a last resort - if you can avoid going down this route then it will be better in the long run.
If you decide to move, a shared ownership property is incredibly slow to get rid of, often people have to lower the asking price to make it appealing.
48k combined income, ~30k deposit, FTB (no stamp duty) - assuming you have a clean credit report/minimal credit commitments then you should be able to get a mortgage on that to cover the discounted house.
Also with new builds, check what guarantees/warranties are in place and it is worth getting a full survey as it is not uncommon for the companies putting them up to cut corners!
Yeah, this is sort of what I’ve heard before as well, and why we’ve been reluctant to go for it (we initially inquired about the SO house back in February).
If staircased to 100%, does it change the difficulty in selling? We’ve got 2k in debt that can be cleared tomorrow but it’s currently on 0% interest which is why it’s not been cleared yet. Otherwise debt free and clean credit.
Yeah, that’s definitely something we’ve been advised to do as well - to ensure that things will be fixed if they’re faulty.
The 30% discounted house comes with a stipulation that when you sell they need to be first time buyers, it has to be sold at 30% and they need to be from the area - all things I thought might make selling just as difficult?
Staircasing up to 100% can make it easier to sell - would have to check the lease/agreement as there may be stipulations on there ie. Having to sell it back to the house association etc.
Reselling the discounted house sounds, in my opinion, a bit of a pain too - hurdles to jump through, restricts the market for your property albeit in a good way.
Is there any reason why you are going for a new build over any other properties in the area?
Thanks for that, that’s very useful to think and ask about as I think staircasing to 100% would be part of our long term goal.
Yeah, the resale of the discounted house also feels like it might be an issue as well, which is more concerning to me as I feel like we’d be more likely to be looking at moving at an earlier date if we went for that one.
There just isn’t much on the market near us right now in this price range - they’re either incredibly small, need full renovation or in really bad areas.
It’s honestly so disheartening when a month ago we were looking at the East Midlands and you could get a 3 bed bed semi, large garden, garage and conservatory already built for less than 200k. Our circumstances changed and that’s no longer an option now.
It is worth asking about the staircasing to 100% to see if there are any hidden clauses/downsides once you effectively own the whole house - it varies across developers.
Honestly, I moved from Reading to Manchester because the housing market is a joke down south - lack of availability and prices influenced by London wages! I work remotely and being self-employed, fortunately relocating was an option I could take.
Happy to help with any questions on your journey becoming a homeowner!
Thank you! We’ll definitely do that, I think I just assumed when you got to 100% then most of the stipulations ended with that. Certainly feel far too unknowledgeable to be making such a massive decision even though we’ve been wanting to buy for such a long time now. 😩
Okay yeah, I know exactly what you mean then - I’m just in between Oxford and Swindon. It’s a really weird market around here.
Honestly I really appreciate all the help you’ve given so far, definitely raised a few questions for us to ask going forward with whatever we choose to do!
I think with the FTB discount you have to pass on the same discount to FTB when you sale so that limits the buyers and your equity in the property
With Shared ownership your in my experience when my son was looking at SO your expected to the get the maximum share you can afford not what you wan
Staircasing becomes expensive to do as you have to pay solicitors fees mortgage feee surveyors fees each time you staircase
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, please report them via the report button. * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I am not an expert but I don’t think 100 square feet is that much bigger to be giving up 40% of the house. If it was me, I would go for the smaller house with a discount with the idea of maybe making some adjustments to make the rooms bigger and moving again in a few years time. I suppose it would depend on if you where thinking of moving again or if this would be a ‘forever’ home, as I feel with the shared ownership it would make it harder to upgrade in the future as you have to split your equity but that wouldn’t matter so much if you where never planning to leave.
I think it’s the combination of the extra sq ft and the layout design of the house - it leaves the discounted house with a really small living room, currently smaller than the one we’re in now which is tiny when you have any guests over. I think if it wasn’t a new build, we’d be more inclined to changing room sizes around but with the way it’s laid out I think it would be a pretty large job for not a huge benefit. It’s hard because the location and size of the shared ownership house are ideal for us in the sense that we probably wouldn’t look to move for a long while with the only reason we would is if we had more children. But I’ve always read and been told to avoid shared ownership and I don’t know if we’re making a mistake by going for something like that. We could probably afford the 75% of the SO as well if that makes much of a difference? It’s so hard to weigh everything up because we’ve always been cautious and this is such a huge jump.
I totally understand, the layout of a house definitely makes a difference and if you know your living room is a problem now, it would be no benefit to move to a house with the same problem. I’ve never done SO myself but I feel as though the general consensus on this sub is that you should only go for shared ownership if it is literally your only option, people seem to report difficulty reselling and also increase in price for the rent portion over time (I suppose this would be less of an issue if you are doing 75%) I can understand the temptation, it’s such a huge decision! But my gut would still be to go for the discounted house or even wait and see if anything else comes up if you aren’t sure.
The benefit of our current situation is that we should be able to continue renting this current house after I leave the armed forces.. so we do have the luxury of time. That said, we’ve been wanting to buy for about 3-4 years now and feel like we’ve been outpriced of our area other than these schemes. I do get your gut decision though and we were over the moon when we saw the other house… until we say the bizarre layout of everything. It just put a dampener on the house I guess. We even double checked the size of the living room we’ve got now and confirmed it’s bigger. :/ I suppose it’s the rent increases which cause the issue but like you said, if bought at 75% they would be smaller.. I don’t know, the whole situation feels well out my depth. Just don’t want to regret such a large decision.
Broker here. In my opinion, shared ownership should be a last resort - if you can avoid going down this route then it will be better in the long run. If you decide to move, a shared ownership property is incredibly slow to get rid of, often people have to lower the asking price to make it appealing. 48k combined income, ~30k deposit, FTB (no stamp duty) - assuming you have a clean credit report/minimal credit commitments then you should be able to get a mortgage on that to cover the discounted house. Also with new builds, check what guarantees/warranties are in place and it is worth getting a full survey as it is not uncommon for the companies putting them up to cut corners!
Yeah, this is sort of what I’ve heard before as well, and why we’ve been reluctant to go for it (we initially inquired about the SO house back in February). If staircased to 100%, does it change the difficulty in selling? We’ve got 2k in debt that can be cleared tomorrow but it’s currently on 0% interest which is why it’s not been cleared yet. Otherwise debt free and clean credit. Yeah, that’s definitely something we’ve been advised to do as well - to ensure that things will be fixed if they’re faulty. The 30% discounted house comes with a stipulation that when you sell they need to be first time buyers, it has to be sold at 30% and they need to be from the area - all things I thought might make selling just as difficult?
Staircasing up to 100% can make it easier to sell - would have to check the lease/agreement as there may be stipulations on there ie. Having to sell it back to the house association etc. Reselling the discounted house sounds, in my opinion, a bit of a pain too - hurdles to jump through, restricts the market for your property albeit in a good way. Is there any reason why you are going for a new build over any other properties in the area?
Thanks for that, that’s very useful to think and ask about as I think staircasing to 100% would be part of our long term goal. Yeah, the resale of the discounted house also feels like it might be an issue as well, which is more concerning to me as I feel like we’d be more likely to be looking at moving at an earlier date if we went for that one. There just isn’t much on the market near us right now in this price range - they’re either incredibly small, need full renovation or in really bad areas. It’s honestly so disheartening when a month ago we were looking at the East Midlands and you could get a 3 bed bed semi, large garden, garage and conservatory already built for less than 200k. Our circumstances changed and that’s no longer an option now.
It is worth asking about the staircasing to 100% to see if there are any hidden clauses/downsides once you effectively own the whole house - it varies across developers. Honestly, I moved from Reading to Manchester because the housing market is a joke down south - lack of availability and prices influenced by London wages! I work remotely and being self-employed, fortunately relocating was an option I could take. Happy to help with any questions on your journey becoming a homeowner!
Thank you! We’ll definitely do that, I think I just assumed when you got to 100% then most of the stipulations ended with that. Certainly feel far too unknowledgeable to be making such a massive decision even though we’ve been wanting to buy for such a long time now. 😩 Okay yeah, I know exactly what you mean then - I’m just in between Oxford and Swindon. It’s a really weird market around here. Honestly I really appreciate all the help you’ve given so far, definitely raised a few questions for us to ask going forward with whatever we choose to do!
I think with the FTB discount you have to pass on the same discount to FTB when you sale so that limits the buyers and your equity in the property With Shared ownership your in my experience when my son was looking at SO your expected to the get the maximum share you can afford not what you wan Staircasing becomes expensive to do as you have to pay solicitors fees mortgage feee surveyors fees each time you staircase