Owning your own home

Ce qui est un parmo?

Fuck me, that chateau is the price of a single bed'n'sex-pond in Hackney

Could I commute from Le Mans to London for Tues-Thurs?

There has to be a catch on the château surely? New autoroute about to be built right outside or hugely expensive emergency structural works need doing?

There has to be a catch on the château surely?

The 'catch' is that it's not in London or the SE of England...

or able to be maintained for less than a bazillion euros a year

The catch is it's in France.

Much like the catch on a 7 bedroom farm based palace in the Yorkshire Dales costing the same as my flat in Dalston is the palace is in the fucking Yorkshire Dales. Good luck commuting from there.

New page fail

That has not escaped my attention. Their bath is much bigger than ours too.

Bet there's nowhere local that does a decent flat white though.

Fair points. The Loire valley has better weather than Yorkshire though.

Who was asking for mortgage help help? This is the guy we've always used. Recommended.

sam.lee@capricornfinancial.co.uk 44 (0)20 88 341 684 or 44 (0)7703 529 209

The render on the back elevation of my flat is probably buggered. Inner wall of bathroom has always been damp, and now, upon drilling through we find it is inside. There are cracks at the edges of windows with a metal edging rusting underneath. Is it a case of ripping it all off and starting again?

Silver lining is the side return seems fine.

It's got no land to speak of, just a garden, and it looks like it's in suburbia, there are houses dead close. I looks like someone's won the pools and didn't want to move. Snooker room's ok.

That's me, WjPrince got me sorted with his dad's contact now, but will keep this in mind if/when I progress further with my plans...

Thanks

Is shared ownership a bit of a scam? I will be speaking to proper mortgage advisors in due course but it doesn't hurt to hear your wonderful wisdom...

I have about 30% deposit, could probably go up to about 35% but my income on paper sucks... I do earn a respectable average London income, but... this appears to be not good enough, my own bank won't even bat an eyelid on me with my income... not that I would want to go with them for my possible mortgage anyway...

Didn't @Soul do shared ownership on his flat?

Is shared ownership a bit of a scam?

Negatives: you have all the problems associated with owning a home but are still paying someone rent. And that someone is a bit thick, and makes your life difficult if / when you come to sell.

Positives: it allows you to 'invest' in a market you otherwise might be shut out from. Your 'landlord' cannot kick you out by not offering you a new contract or selling the place.

Nope.

@BQ did I think. Not sure he was a fan.

I am just thinking I would like to ideally remain in the same area, Camberwell / Brixton / Peckham, which buying outright is completely out of the question, part ownership of 25-30%, or maybe a bit higher means I only have to take out a small mortgage, but judging from the actual 100% value of any of the property I have looked at, it'd be at least my next life before I can afford to buy it off, so what is the difference to keep on renting and hoping my landlady doesn't ever turn completely greedy... Renting means if something goes wrong, she pays for it... which I quite like...

Apologies for the error.

I have a mate who did it and ended up owning a flat that has virtually doubled in price that he wouldn't have been able to buy outright at the start. Had various troubles with the service fees being hugely excessive which ended with him auditing it all and reclaiming a variety of stuff.

Says he's happy he took that route though.

so what is the difference to keep on renting

You get total security, so long as you pay the mortgage and rent no one can kick you out. Plus you get your %age of any rise in value if you sell.

They're a bit of a faff to sell on as you have to take a surveyors valuation and often give the housing association a month to find a buyer before you can put it on the open market but other than that, and the fact you pay 100% of any repairs and upgrades and only get 40% (or whatever) of the benefit, the system can work well for people in your situation. Especially if you reckon you'll live there long term.

There are various schemes, the best ones are the ones that will allow you to staircase to 100% ownership. Lots are now limited to 80% and mortgage companies aren't keen on that so they're tougher to sell.

All good mate.

Shared ownership is a total scam. You're not buying a share of a home, you're renting it and paying upfront a huge amount for an option to buy at a later date. You pay 100% stamp duty, management, maintenance, ground rent and service charges, all of your freeholder's legal costs, and stand to lose your home and all your money if you fall behind on the rent. You are also beholden to a housing association, which is the kind of landlord interested only in building and renting/selling but not in maintenance, addressing complaints, being efficient or professional, leaving you to enjoy your home in peace, or being helpful when you want to sell. You will get shafted at every turn, so only enter into it if you intend to staircase to 100% as soon as possible.

It got me on the housing ladder back in 1999, but I will be fucking glad when I complete on my sale (assuming East Homes' catastropic incompetence and inefficiency doesn't lose me my buyer along the way)

My mate took an interesting approach to the "it must be first sold via the housing association at market value" clause..

Marketed it via an external estate agent, had some offers and then said to the housing association that this was the market value if they wanted to try and sell it.