Co-Ownership Housing
 

Me and the missus are thinking of buying our first home but with the prices of houses in our area we are still pretty much priced out compared to the house we rent together.

She came home last night with some leaflets on Co-Ownership which all sounds good(a bit too good at times) so I would like anyones view on doing this?

From what I can remember from looking into this a while back, lets take a purchase price of £200,000

So you and your missus get 50% mortgage of £100,000 and get a repayment mortgage of what something around £600.00 per month over a period of 20 - 30 years, then you would have to rent from the council the other £100,000 in monthly payments of £500 per month until your payments on your 50% are paid of then you can buy the remainder of the property in chunks of 25% and both payments are reduced?

So you could be paying off £1100 per month in combined rent and mortgage?

I realise my numbers are very ish, but if thats a realistic comparrison does it mean you pay less than what the full mortgage on the property would be if you had 100% mortgage?

Oh also, dont you have to be in a certain line of work to be applicable to the system anyway, fireman, nurse, policeman etc?

Or has that changed now?

Seriously do your research before going for it, because there has been a hell of a lot of major fraud cases regarding this up here. Dodgy dealings.

I looked at the ones in conjunction with housing association / local councils and they seemed a much safer bet and cheaper too, but i found it was harder to get a mortgage quote etc as the property won't be 100% 'yours' so the bank will not be able to reposses the full house to recoup any costs should anything go wrong.

This was 4yr ago though. I ended up buying a new house off plan as it was about 30% cheaper than buying anything else.

No, quite a lot of private schemes now operated by building firms to shift stuff on new estates etc. for example http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...-28168702.html

Jamz - dont do it mate unless you are sure you can afford to buy back the rental half of your house with 5 - 10 years. There are loads of propertys about at the minute and they are not selling, still a buyers market, only drawback is whether you are a good lending proposition.

Wait another couple years and theyll be giving them away ??

been there done that and all . its ok if the rent is reduced . when we did ours the rent was a lot less than what the mortage would of been . idea of prices
1/3 mortage 50k = £280.00 per month 100k on rent £400-450 , they pay buildings insurance , but you are responable for upkeep decor etc any improvements you make will only see you a 1/3rd of any profit and if you sell up all selling fees are your problem . however for us it was a stop gap for 10-15 years as i knew i was being left a 4bed bungalow, also with most scheems after 1 year you can purchase another share or all of it if you can afford it . i was lucky i think did it 10 years ago wjth westcountry housing and was allowed to pick our own house so long as they approved . we did buy right and made 21k on our share after all fees

My eldest daughter is doing this at the moment, its a joint venture with the builder and the bank, they have the option to buy the others out after a period of time. Seems to work for them. :thumb:

seems like i'm getting a bit of a mixed bag of answers here.

One bit that i'm concerned about is my credit rating as i have around 6k on loans and cards at the moment which may go against me from what i've read. I think i'll schedule a meeting with the company and see what is what as I don't understand all of what the legal fees etc cover.

I think all you'll find is that your credit rating will be good as long as you are paying the credit card back, the only thing you'll find is that it will reduce the maximum you can borrow

There are alot of different schemes, you need to be carefull mate. Like I say above its working for my eldest.

James - do plenty of research on this.
A friend of mine done this many many years ago and If I remember correctly he got stung trying to buy them out.

or you could buy an apartment in Ballybofey for 11.5k. see For sale... fancy a flat for 11,700 euros?

Celtic tiger my arse!!!

Years ago we used Co-Ownership to get onto the property ladder.
House cost a little over 100k, we went 50/50 with a few K down as deposit.
I pay 328 a month mortgage and 120 a month rent. I pay house insurance and also life policies for both me and the wife. Upkeep is a no brainer as you have an investment, why would you let it go to ****e?
The house price doubled during the boom but we couldnt afford to buy out the 50% outright so decided against the percentage and went with an extension instead.
This is where it gets interesting.
We have redecorated every room, built a new downstairs toilet room from reclaimed cupboard/closet space and also an extension for the full width of the house out the back.
Should we sell now, co-ownership will only get a return on the original aspects of the house, they will not profit from the work we have done, ie the toilet and extension.
Having said that, even today during the current slide, the house is worth a lot more than we paid for it before house prices went mental, between the extra there and the rent, this is how co-ownership makes a few quid and are able to extend their assistance to more people wanting into the property ladder without having to put themselves in debt and danger over massive monthly payments.
Because it was so many years ago now, I am in a different job, have three kids and 2 petrol guzzlers, I am glad I made the decision back then as, even though I could afford the full mortgage then and now, it is easier per month, when I get older and less worried about cars etc, our savings should be enough to buy the rest of the house out then.
To me there is no problems doing it this way because at the end of the day, even If I was to die early, the kids would still have something from the life policies and the half of the house, in fact the policies would be more than enough to buy out the other haf and keep them for a right while.