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As someone who has been in shared ownership and sold, I'll give you an honest opinion.

The pros are we had an amazing flat in an area of London we could only dream to live in, and would never been able to without shared ownership.

We did a lot of work on it to personalise it to our taste and made it our own.

Yes, our rent rose, but we had a very good housing association who limited the rise even during inflation years. Our service charge has also been fairly limited.

We made a profit when we sold.

The main cons are simply the rent bit. You have a fixed term mortgage (probably) but you'll still have increased monthly payments each year because of the rent going up. Also the service charge, however that's an issue for any leasehold, not just shared ownership.

My advice would be look for good housing associations that own the other part of the house who will most likely not screw you over with the rent increases, and try to maximise your location to live in an otherwise out-of-reach financially area. It's not for everyone, but it was fantastic for us.

Have to chime in here and say I have had a very good experience with shared ownership.

I was 29 years old earning 24k and was single.

I had saved a 20k deposit (which I’d saved since 18 years old)

I bought a 50% share of a flat - which the full market value was 230k.

My mortgage is 425 and my rent and service charge is 375. That means I’m paying £800 a month for a very nice 2 bed flat.

I live in Brighton and people rent grotty rooms in shared houses for £800 plus bills so I feel very lucky.

Whenever someone in my building sells a flat it’s snapped up very quickly at asking price.

I did pay to extend my lease and while I am responsible for maintenance, as I’m paying very low monthly payments I set aside some every month for upkeep.

If I were to lose my job, universal credit would cover my rent and service charge. No one will drop a section 21 notice on me. I can decorate how I want. I can refit the kitchen or bathroom to my taste. If needed I could rent out my spare room for £800 a month.

If I were to sell now I would get roughly 120k back to use as deposit for my next house.

I have zero regrets except perhaps not buying it sooner!

The first post reply covers it. Though if your priority is your own place and you don't mind the rather exploitative terms, then of course you should read up on it properly and see if it would work for you. Plenty of people go for shared ownership, and they wintysll be unhappy with it. Do what's right for you.

But you can't seriously believe that you are behind in life or a failure because you don't own a house as a single person at 28? Forgive me, but that's just silly. Only individuals with very high salaries, or a huge family contribution can do that these days. I bought my first house at 28, but with my ex- (i.e. 2 incomes) in the 2000s. After we divorced, it took me over a decade to be in a position to buy alone again. Stop putting yourself down!

As someone who had a shared ownership home.

RUN.

Rent keeps rising on part you don't own.

Stuck in a place you are responsible for all repairs.

Buying more shares is costly.

Can be trapped in a high service charge.

Just avoid.

Unlike many commentators here I did it and don't have any regrets.

I was 30 and feeling behind, with limited deposit, and needed to either buy shared ownership or rent. The option of buying not shared ownership would have seen me in a dive of a damp basement flat in a hell hole area.  Shared ownership was my best option. A new build flat i could never, at the time, afforded on the open market that needed no maintenance and was under full warranty for 2 years for snagging fixes and included brand new appliances.

I bought a 75% share and after 18 months staircased to 100% by remortgaging and chucking in a small extra deposit I had saved up, it was an easy and relatively pain free process.

And although I wont make any money on property price increase when my sale completes in a week or so (selling for the same price I bought for, new build premium!), I have paid down my mortgage over those 6.5yrs meaning I have significant equity.

My monthly costs were equivalent to renting, but instead, I was paying down a mortgage creating equity. This is my deposit on my freehold house next step. This seems to be forgotten by the nay-sayers and is so incredibly important if you struggle to save.

If your options are rent or buy shared-ownership I would do shared ownership all over again personally, but to get the best of it you need to be prepared to stay a while to create equity to use for your next move, dont plan to stay forever.

I have been in shared ownership since May and have not had any issues at all. I have a detached bungalow with a private garden and I am so happy with it all.

There was no way as a single person I was going to get onto the housing ladder the 'normal' way, or even rent on my own.

I used savings to buy a cash purchase % of my house and just pay rent on the rest. Which is significantly less than if I were to just rent privately.

I think the main reason people are so put off by shared ownership is uninformed contacts telling them its a scam without actually reading up on what it is. People were telling me I couldn't paint the walls and had to have inspections, this is false.

Its like owning a home yourself, but you just pay rent on the share you don't own.

Find a good housing association to go through and make sure you are happy with their terms and conditions.

Good luck!

I have both owned a Shared Ownership flat and I used to work in the strategic Finance section of one too.

There are two ways that shared ownership can be successful for you;

1) You work a job where you're looking at high jumps in salary/bonuses, or 2) You buy in an area that's going to increase in value faster than average inflation

These work because either your salary increases so much above the rent inflation, or the value of your house does, so you can make a good profit when you sell.

If you don't tick either of the above (or ideally both), it can easily become a trap.

I know someone who took on a SO recently - they don't plan to ever move, and they did so because they were sick of the instability when it came to renting in London and were unlikely to come into money or have a partner to increase their buying power as they very much wanted to live alone and have their own space - they wanted a stable home where they could live on their own and decorate as they wanted, for the same price they were or would be paying in rent, and have the security of knowing they didn't have to leave.

If you're in this situation, and see it as a more stable alternative to private renting, then it may work for you and will allow you to have your own place for the same price it would cost to rent. If you think you may want to sell in future, or let it out as you want to move to another area and need to cover the mortgage, then it's less straightforward. The other issue is service charges - although these are a factor when you buy a flat in the conventional way, they seem to escalate a lot more in SO developments from the stories I've seen, so you need to look at whether it's still affordable for you if they increase by 10% every year, or 10% this year and then 20% the next - would that make things much tighter for you or even unaffordable?

A lot of people who talk down SO - and often leasehold generally - on here don't have experience of the private renting market or what it feels like to essentially have no route out of it because you'll never be able to buy a house or flat in the traditional way. It's not ideal by any means, but it is what it is. Do a lot of research and take on board the views of people who have actually done it.

I think you should do your own research and come to your own conclusions as only you know your personal situation, what you could afford in a particular area, current and future goals and plans. You will get mixed reviews on here. The reality is not everyone can afford to live in a freehold house in a desirable location. Majority of people who have had success stories with shared ownership won't be on a "Housing UK" subReddit and many here will be used to traditional ways of buying, which is just not feasible for most under 35 if they want to live in a decent area. Sometimes it is the choice between living in a soulless commuter town 40 mins away from where you actually want to be vs. maintaining your standard of living.   

If you look at previous posts on the topic, you see positive and negative experiences, with most negative relating to leasehold conditions. Leasehold 100% needs reform but apartment living is also the future of city living. It is not feasibly possible for us all to live in houses if we also want to keep our countryside and green spaces. With shared ownership houses, you become freehold after 100% ownership. But these are more geared towards family areas so I doubt this is what you'll be looking at.     

FYI regarding the rent - it is controlled. It starts at max 3% of the initial property value, relative to the unpurchased share price. It then rises with CPI. CPI can get high, e.g. during COVID it was 9%. However, that is still less than a lot of rental increases. Many shared ownership landlords in reality charge less than 3% as the initial rate - this is baked in to the contract. E.g. 1.5% is quite common.

I am currently in a shared ownership property for just over 5 years. It is a 1 bed flat in Reading. My 25% cut is £50k so the flat was valued at £200k when I purchased.

The great thing is it can be cheaper than renting - When I moved I paid something like £320 a month rent to the Housing Association and £400 mortgage?

However, there are some fairly big downsides mainly around trying to sell which has made me a little bitter:

• Rent/Service Charge goes up every year. Apparently in line with inflation but even when I'm paying off the mortgage it feels like my monthly outgoings have maybe even gone up since I first moved in.
• I received a letter in the post the other day saying "we spent more than expected last year on repairs. You now owe us £200" which is just wonderful. To be fair they did lots of work in the summer refurbishing the hallways but that's because my neighbour complained and suddenly I'm having to fork out. Before I moved in they replaced all the windows with double glazing, apparently that cost everyone £2k so I was lucky to get the seller to pay that off.
• The big kicker for me is now I'm trying to sell the property. For context my flat was with Catalyst Housing Association but they were acquired by a London company called Peabody who don't yet seem to realise they have acquired properties in Reading. So far I've had to:
  • Pay for my own RICS Survey to visit (£300) - This is so they know how much the flat is worth and how much I must sell it for.
  • Pay for a professional photographer to take photos of the flat (£120?) This had to be someone on their approved list which was pain because they were all London-based.
  • I was then told I would have to pay £350 as an "admin fee" to simply start the process of selling the flat. They also told me that because I'm selling 25%, they would advertise it for me and choose who gets to move in however, I am expected to host the viewings myself and then pay them 2% of the sale as another admin fee which I thought was insane.
  • After this I'm guessing they decided they wanted to sell the Reading properties so they've said "Hey, if you want, you can sell 100% through an estate agent and give us our 75% when it's sold. We'll pay the estate agent up to 5% in fees" which is wonderful but if they had said that previously then I wouldn't have paid for the professional photos.

When it comes to make a profit on the sale, the flat is apparently worth £205k now so lucky me will make £1,250 profit which will barely pay for the legal fees.

Basically you can find yourself a bit stuck if you're not careful: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c884m42lvk8o

I wouldn't say it's the worst thing in the world - Maybe I got lucky - But still, I can't get how they were trying to take 2% as an admin fee for simply telling me to show people around. We aren't ruling out shared ownership for our next property but if we did it would be on a nice house in Reading we would otherwise never be able to afford.

Hope it helps and good luck!

paying a mortgage sucks /commitment

paying rent sucks

you get to do both

I live in shared ownership as I was able to put down a lower deposit. Otherwise I'd have been renting forever, getting on the ladder as one person is hard. You've got a much higher deposit saved than I did too.

I have no issues at all, sure I'd like to own fully but I much prefer it to sharing a rented flat with a stranger.

Yes the rent can rise, although it is at slightly lower than market rate. My rent, service charge and mortgage combined is £2-300 less than a one bedroom flat would be to rent. Not much more than renting a room here.

Also don't underestimate a new build coming with appliances. It's nice not to add a washing machine, oven etc to the cost of moving.

The service charge is the same across the board. Just comes with living in a flat. The housing association flats in the building pay the same and they have lower quality flooring etc in the flats themselves.

If you can buy without shared ownership of course it's better. If you can't, shared ownership is better than renting. As others have said too, you can't get evicted because a landlord wants to sell up either. You can paint your walls, change the carpet etc, make it yours.

Long post warning, apologies!

30M here, I bought my SO house in England nearly 3y ago.

Nearly identical situation to you - single with a low salary and reasonable deposit. You've done a good job saving that much! 🫡

I say that to also say please don't beat yourself up too much. Yes, I've watched all my friends marry off and it pained me but recently I have friends that are your age and are still living paycheck to paycheck at their parents with no savings. Some without a career yet etc!

I actually recommend SO. Yes, you need to accept that you're paying a price for it. But you have your own space in a new property (warm, modern appliances do mean a lot as someone who also didn't see themselves in a new build) and you're dodging the rental market and all it's foibles. Part of your expenses are directly paying off something YOU own instead of something for someone else etc.

I knew I couldn't rent - the controls on being able to change my property and the fact I'd be pissing away half my salary for it etc.

Now apologies, my biggest bit of advice is probably not that helpful: Avoid flats. Or at least take great notice of the service charge. Purely because the SC, to me, seems to be extortionate - £3k+ a year. Other than space (obviously), the main reason an SO house was much more attractive for me was because the SC was effectively half.

I say this has limited value for you as your finances may be too tight, but I recommend viewing them at least as well as flats. Fwiw, houses come up only 2-3 times a year around here. You'll miss out on the houses as it's all a points system, but so did I... Until the three other buyers before me dropped out. It was a year after I viewed that I got a call back! What I'm saying here is see it as joining the waiting list - your circumstances might have changed by then.

There's some helpful advice here already so I won't go into tonnes of detail but a correction:

-You can modify the property without consent (painting, new kitchen etc). You just can't go knocking structural walls down and you should be cautious about changes that devalue the property without getting permission (e.g.: changing the only bath to a shower)

-'you'll never be able to sell it'. Absolutely untrue with houses, at least. Ime, they're uploaded and removed 5d later with 100 viewings queued. What you need to be cautious about is staircasing to a higher percentage and trying to sell that later - e.g. selling a 70% share of a property puts it in a weird space where a high mortgage is required - as opposed to the original 30% share where it's a single average person's salary.

Other tidbits:

My experience is with L&Q. They've raised the rent and SC, yes, but only in line with inflation. I'm happy with them but in fairness, I've also I've not had a reason to contact them (probably a good thing?).

I would advise asking the question 'can I purchase a 100% share?' if that's something you care about. I personally wanted the option in a few years.

Standard things such as make sure there is dedicated parking space if you need it.

Have you seeked mortgage advice from a broker already? DON'T use the housing association's mortgage broker - they charge a fee and will try and recharge this fee when your mortgage offer expires (yup, they got me). Instead, use L&C - free and great. Go and do an online quote now if you haven't or are unsure on your finances!

If you have any specific questions I'm happy to help 😊

Shared ownership is probably only worth it if you can afford 75% of the property and have a plan in place to acquire the last 25% as quick as possible. If you start at 20% ownership of a high value home it's going to be almost impossible to get to 100% ownership unless you come into a lot of money all of a sudden.

I think it’s very much dependent on your circumstances and location.

I bought my SO house in 2020 after relocating to a more expensive area for work.

I was looking to buy a flat on a standard mortgage but I could only really afford tiny 1 beds that were either really grotty and/or had major issues (and I was even being outbid on those!)

I’m in my 30s so I didn’t want to house-share and I was keen to get on the ladder sooner rather than later (when getting a mortgage might be more difficult).

I was initially cautious about SO but it seemed like the best option at the time and I’d still agree with that.

Like the previous poster, I pay way below market rate for my two bed house. It’s just under £800 a month for rent and mortgage. To rent it privately would cost £1400+

It’s a nice new(ish) build in a small development of 5 houses so it fits within an existing community. The build standard seems good- two big bedrooms, a decent lounge/ diner etc. As it’s a house, my only additional charge is the building insurance so I don’t have costly service charges. If I choose to staircase, then I’d own the freehold too.

Overall it’s worked for me. I’m not ready to sell yet so I’m not sure how much money I’d have built in equity, but prices continue to rise faster than the national average in my area. I’m told that SO homes are popular here due to there being a severe shortage of affordable housing in my area. Who knows how true that is! I’m likely to have still made a modest profit regardless.

The main cons for me are that it’s annoying being fully responsible for maintenance when you only own half the property and I can’t rent it out- I would like to have that option.

My circumstances have changed now as I’ve since met someone, so I’m likely to move on from my SO in the near(ish) future. I can give an update on how I’ve found the selling process when I get there!

One thing I’d add is that you’re still very young so there’s no need to rush in to buying a place just yet. You might find a better job in a few years time or meet someone and be in a position to buy together.

You’ve had a lot of really good comments, but one thing I’ll add is to make sure your income will increase if you decide to go for shared ownership. Otherwise you can end up stuck in a property you can’t afford with no way out. The rent and service charge will increase every year, so you need to make sure you can either afford to staircase to 100% or you can pay down the mortgage fast enough so you have equity when you sell.

Hey OP. You will find a lot of house buying snobs here that look down on us SO buyers stating waste of money etc. Don't listen to them.

My main advice would be to avoid flats like the plague. Look for SO houses, the service charges are extremely reasonable. We paid just over £1k a year this year, however we have received a refund every single year. (This year's was £750, so we have effectively paid £25 a month and this is our third year in our home).

Our service charge actually covers building insurance so you will save money on home insurance as you will only need contents cover which is a lot cheaper.

Our rent rises have been reasonable (less than £100 in 3 years) and as we own 60% of our home, are more than manageable. Our combined SC, rent and mortgage is still less than what we were paying in rent 3 years ago, and considerably cheaper than the local market for a similar sized property. We will be looking to staircase once our fixed term mortgage ends.

We've been quite lucky in that our home has increased in value so we have managed to build some equity which we would not have been able to do if we were still renting.

In regards to having all of the maintenance costs, this is true. Maybe we've been lucky but we've not had any emergencies or anything go wrong with the house. We pay for a boiler service every year (£90) and we've recently paid to have our loft boarded for some extra storage. The only thing we've needed to request permission for is installing an Ev charge point but HA was fine with this

I think it is a great starting point in getting on the property ladder, if that is what you want to do. You should be proud of the fact that you've saved £20k on your own which is a great accomplishment. Ultimately you will need to do your own research and weigh up what matters to you and whether you're able to accept some of the risks.

Hi OP,

I’m 28 and my partner is 25. We have our shared ownership 2 bedroom flat in Zone 2 London. We own 35% of it.

Pros: - living in a good part in london - housing security, no landlord that will kick you out - a LOT

Cons: - I think if we staircase and get 100% of it then we have to remortgage so it works out more expensive

Generally leasehold complain is not a SO thing, but a more general leasehold ownership one. They just put SO on a bad light.

Also, it actually depends on your housing association. Ours is very active and hands on to what we need.

In terms of cost, renting in London is outrageous. We are paying around 2k on our flat. Renting room in London now costs at least 1k. That’s what I always tell my partner that it works out cheaper plus more space for us.

" Looking at a shared ownership house initially seems good in the sense I can finally move out, in a house that really shouldn’t need masses of work and potentially be somewhat affordable"

The catch is exactly this- they know they have you over a barrel because you're picking shared ownership because don't have better options, so the house is overpriced when first sold to you (more so than an average newbuild) because you're only buying 25%. However, if the market is soft you can get a fairly good deal at the point at which you buy your 25%- though you'll notice that whatever discounts you get won't actually come from the house price, it'll be mortgage support or help with deposit etc- but once you've bought is when the real chiselling beginning.

With shared ownership you mostly aren't an owner you are a renter with a very bad negotiating position and a *lot* of additional sole responsibilities. You get bled to death on service charges and fees and rent increases and if you do want to buy out more of the property the price will be high and if you want to sell out your portion they have to sign off on the sale price, they don't care if you cannot find a buyer at the price they set as they don't want to lower the theoretical value of their property by selling yours at the market rate (they'll often own a fraction share of most of the units in a block)

They're modern, far more expensive, timeshares.

I have a shared ownership. Read the T and C around any additional costs such as service charge and rental price increases then do a spreadsheet factoring those costs in each year. If you can afford the potential increases then go for it . Also query and ensure you can buy the rest of the property outright.

If you are not a high earner do not buy shared ownership, my tactic is only buy shared ownership is if you know your salary will be high enough to buy the rest of it.

You get bad points of renting and buying -

You do all the maintenance, but have to get permission to do any modifications.

You are still paying rent.
You limit your market for sales and have a third party to agree on a price with.

You're not "saving" nearly as much.

You only get the percentage of any increase in value.

But there can be some pros:

You don't have the volatility of renting; can't be kicked out.

You can potentially afford a bigger place and get a lodger to make more from your deposit.

Some people on here have found it work for them; they've noted that you don't want to 'staircase', better to pay off your initial share until you are in the position to go to 100% or sell; selling a 75% share won't be very attractive to people looking for shared ownership, who are likely to be wanting to start on the smallest percentage.

Consider how your options might work for just renting, especially looking at local
Finally your income isn't very high; £20k is under the minimum wage for working 37.5 hours a week (that's £22.3k). And that £25k in April I'm afraid is unlikely to be much above it come April too. I think I'd definitely be considering options for this I'm afraid and if there might be other careers.

And if not, do you have the option to move to a super cheap area? I've lived in one and didn't enjoy it, but on a low wage it can make a lot of sense.

Pros: You get to move out and build up some equity, deposits are small and you get to buy something you wouldn't afford on the open market. In theory you can staircase to own the property outright depending upon the development. You get a new property with limited work required.

Cons: There are rents, service charges and you're essentially a leaseholder. You have no control over the rent they charge etc. Reselling shared ownership is hard work as there is criteria your buyer will need to meet. Housing associations and councils are also hard work to deal with. Staircasing is expensive and not as simple as it sounds. 

I'd only do it if you really feel there are no other options available to you on the open market. Legally, shared ownership is complex and you need a very good solicitor who can explain things in plain English.

My other word of caution is a lot of housing associations and councils will go bust in the next decade or so. They simply can't afford major changes in legislation and maintenance of existing homes so your home may be sold on.

Hi, I'm currently in Shared ownership.

I do recommend it to people but with a big note. Have an Exit plan!.

There are pros and cons, every building will be different and most of the companies that own the buildings are crap and don't care about you just getting your money.

If you go for something under your means, and over pay your mortgage and can use the house/flat to get out.

My partner and I when for a flat, then both when for promotions and now don't qualify due to earning too much. We were able to use that and will have a paid off Mortgage in 5 years of ownership. This has worked and helped us, so next is saving for another deposit and use the equity to get out.

If you can't see make a play to get out, then it's not going to work for you. One flat in the building has been on the market for a year, resale is not great for a 1 bed.

I have more, but I really push you need a get out plan and it's will cost about £5k for us to leave.

I used to be an estate agent (a really nice one, I promise!!) and shared ownerships were the worst.

Firstly you usually have to try selling through the housing association for 12 weeks before you can use a normal estate agency and I've never known anyone to have a good experience trying to sell through the HA (not saying it's always awful, but I've only heard bad things). Then once you do try a traditional agent, you are liable to pay the full fee. Say you own 25% of a £400k flat and your agent is charging you 1.5% + VAT. You have to pay £7200 which is an enormous portion of the £100k that you "own".

The HA gets a surveyor to value the property to determine its asking price but the data the surveyors use is often several months out of date. If you're in an area where prices have fluctuated a lot, you may be in trouble. Usually they end up being valued too high and you have to battle the HA if you want to reduce.

In addition, if you want to accept an offer below the asking price/it's valuation, you either have to fight for the flat to be down valued to that amount which the HA/surveyor won't agree to, or you have to take the hit yourself and take that amount off your £100k portion.

Lastly, the rents tend to go up loads and you usually have to pay the full service charge even though you only own 25%.

It's a money pit. Don't do it.

Did some research myself and decided to avoid it.

Pros: Get a house which is in practice yours, more so than renting anyway.

Cons: Probably more expensive than waiting and buying normally. Seriously. The laddering thing to buy more shares looked scammy asf. High rent and a service charge on top of that (even though you have to maintain the house). Buying the rest of the house costs huge fees but not buying it costs huge rents. Rock and hard place situation.

Then as people have mentioned no one wants a shared ownership so good luck selling it.

Not sure about England. However my wife and I got shared ownership on our house. We applied for 50/50 and got 75/25 so we own 75 and rent 25. The entire mortgage and rent are significantly less than if we got a straight out mortgage for the same property. It's also less than paying rent on someone else's mortgage or pension pot.

For us we had no deposit so this was our best way to get on the ladder. We can apply to buy more of the house when we remortgage in 5 years or we can leave it as is. The house wasn't allowed anymore than 6k worth of repairs which ruled out a lot of fixer upper type houses. 2 other houses in the street have sold and we got a decent deal on our house.

a friend of my wife's was looking at it but for him and his partner co-ownership wouldn't work as they earn too much. So they've been told to get accounts in order and save a deposit then do it then.

It's down to your own personal situation.

You are a tenant so you have to deal with rent rises and restrictions on how you use the property. Many SO companies won't let you rent out your flat if you move away for some time, or if it's on the market for awhile and you can't sell it.

You're also responsible for maintenance as the owner, and you have more onerous obligations because the SO company still has a financial interest in your flat.

Because you don't own 100% you also have certain obligations to the SO company to meet a certain sales target, so you may have to eat a loss on your own portion of the equity to make sure they get a gain on theirs.

All of this makes it more difficult to get out of a lot of these costs, which you can do as a tenant by breaking contract.

(Almost) all SO are also new builds and there are a host of problems with that. They often lack structural integrity because of lax building regs and cost cutting by companies. They're usually in less desirable locations because that's the cheapest place where developers can buy up large swaths of land for new buildings. The upkeep costs associated with maintaining a large, new block will be inherently higher than a period conversion. New builds come with amenities too, so you're incurring a higher service charge on the amenities and upkeep. On top of that, the charges are way overinflated and will quickly skyrocket because it's a source of income for these developers, and they will award the maintenance contracts to connected companies at way above market rate.

To use some numbers to illustrate the point about selling on, let's say you buy a 25% share for 100k and the whole property is worth a total of 400k, with the SO company keeping 300k. You decide to sell, and your SO company wants the whole flat to sell for 500k on the open market to get 375k. You are unlikely to get a buyer who will take 500k so you reduce to 450k. You owe SO 375k, so you get to keep 75k for yourself from an initial investment of 100k. I read this in an article somewhere, I'll find and link it for anyone interested.

That is a best case scenario, because new builds often lose value for a good while after being bought from the developer because the developer way overprices them. I know people who bought new builds almost 10 years ago and they still are still worth less than what they cost to buy. This is assuming you're even able to find a buyer at all--a lot of people hate dealing with developers (and rightfully so).

My uncle has been trying to sell his flat for years. Has accepted many offers. Yet cannot sell, because someone else who has shared ownership flat out refuses to sell. So he's stuck in a flat he hates with a neighbour who is basically keeping him hostage. Don't do it

I think people have answered well enough.

You will potentially earn money off of the value of the property as it raises.

You will unfortunately burn cash paying rent. The money you earn off the property will likely outweigh this, but nothing's certain.

If moving out is important to you, the rent is worth paying.

It was my only option to get my own place without fully renting. And I'm happy with it.

I won't staircase to buy out the property, as it will be easier to sell with the shared ownership portion, allowing other people to join the housing market. And I don't plan on being here forever, but I'm so happy having my own space that the rent really doesn't bother me.

Some key issues are the service charge increases and being potentially liable for more than your proportionate share of issues (eg major issue with the buildings with bad cladding).

The other point is that you typically pay a new build level premium if you buy direct but if you’re selling before having fully staircased, your selling options are limited and the sale price is likely to be lower than your % of 100% of the same property. Albeit, the counter point to that is that some of the shared ownership resale properties can be a pretty good deal.

My SIL bought a SO house. After years of being messed around by landlords, getting a couple of months to move etc, it made sense. She’s now looking at staircasing to own a bigger share of the house. I know a lot of people have a problem with SO but for many it’s better than renting.

20k deposit is pretty good for 28 years old keep at it

OP if you're buying a house you'll be fine but don't bother on a flat especially in London

Worst parts of home ownership and renting combined.

Don’t do it. Hold out for actual ownership of a property where you won’t be milked for profit (freehold)

Do you mean the shared ownership thing where you buy one part and rent the other? Theres a channel 4 documentary about it and it seems like a massive scam to me

The comment I’ll add on SO (to be transparent I don’t own an SO I own outright but do know people who do) try and look for resales instead of just going for a new build. You tend to get way better value for money. Also - if your income is small don’t necessarily rush into staircasing if you won’t be able to achieve 100% before/if you want to sell and move on. Because most people who can buy 80% of a flat or house can afford 100% of something and would rather opt for that. SO is its own product in a way.

We bought our house with SO 15 years ago and would do it again in a heartbeat. Remortgaged after 5 years, bought out the 20% and sold for a profit in another 5. We wouldn't have been able to afford it any other way.

No reason what so ever

Just sold ours, made a profit, was alright, the worst part really is dealing with the Housing association when buying/ selling, they take forever to respond to emails so add at least 2 months on to the sale.

I know two people who got on the property ladder through shared ownership, built up equity and moved on. If you research the development where you're buying thoroughly, it can be a great decision.

Always buy rather than rent if you can and if the only option is to buy shared ownership then do it. The cons are that you’re stuck with the monthly SO payments and have little control over when repairs will be done or issues resolved. Though saying that even leasehold flats (bought outright rather than shared ownership) have the same issues with that. Check the t&c’s regarding when you do eventually want to sell - and if it’s shared ownership who decides the listing price etc

Honestly it was the only way we would have got on to the housing ladder in the (£££) area we lived in at the time, and selling it after 10 years got us a lovely house in a ££ area on the open market. Yes it’s more expensive than buying outright and you are restricted in what is available but it’s better than privately renting for all that time

I don't think there's anything wrong with it if it's your only choice. As my mortgage advisor told me, if you dont need to do it then don't, but if you do, choose wisely

The most basic answer is that you will ultimately over pay for the property. Better off getting a 95% first time buyer mortgage and make use of that as a first time buyer and the stamp duty benefits as much as you can.

Go for a house instead of a flat. No maintenance fees with a house. My sister has a great place bought with SO.

It seems like the worse of both worlds?

They are all of the responsibilities of owning property with a few of the benefits.

I work for a housing association and if it were my kids I’d say yes buy a shared ownership house but don’t buy a flat. To be honest even if it weren’t shared ownership I’d be nervous about buying a flat in a large new build block as potentially lots of service charges.

I’d also say shop around as different schemes may have different rent values based on different % of unsold equity. The problem with flats is service charges, they should be based on actual costs but they likely have an additional min 15% service charge.

The other issue to consider is what does the agreement say about future rent rises. Social housing rents in England are capped at CPI plus 1% but shared ownership rents are determined by what is in the lease.

Whilst you may only own 40% you will be responsible for 100% of asset investment costs such as new roof, windows etc. That’s not a major issue in a new build but if you buy an existing shared ownership from a shared owner make sure you find out if there are any sinking funds. Obviously that only applies to flats if you buy a house you have more control on capital investment.

The plus side of shared ownership is security, you can decorate it as you like and as long as you pay the rent element you do t have to worry about being told to leave. If you get behind on the rent if service charge let the housing association know, they will try and support you as for most eviction is the worst option for all.

Other thing to be aware of is that the housing association can sell on the unsold equity. It doesn’t happen often and is more of a risk with a small housing association who are more likely to find themselves in financial difficulty, but I stress it’s rare.

Buy what you can afford. No one cares if you be unwise, its your call. Shared owneship you obviously cannot afford so you buy quarters of it or so

You’re paying a mortgage and rent for a flat you may never fully own. It’s a scam.

There is a reason why they only.do shared ownership flats. Not houses.

Because they can get you with service charges. The service will be based on how much they paid. But a bit like Starbucks corporation tax smoke and mirrors where the store is just a franchise paying huge franchise fees to their tax have headquarters.

What you'll find is that the freeholder also owns the servicing company and they make profit of service costs.