Older buyers care to share
WITH Help To Buy now a distant memory and affordable mortgage deals thin on the ground, new-build property buyers are beginning to look more closely at Shared Ownership – where up to 75 per cent of a home can be bought and subsidised rent paid on the remaining 25 per cent.
It’s a government-backed scheme largely aimed at getting first-time buyers on the property ladder but there’s also an Older Persons Shared Ownership scheme for over-55s who are either first-time buyers or may have owned a home at one stage but, for various reasons, now find it difficult to get back on the property ladder.
This may be because of a relationship breakdown, which was the case for 63-year-old Jackie Kelly who managed to reset her life when she bought a one-bedroom apartment through shared ownership.
“I couldn’t afford to buy a property on my own, and at my age mortgages are difficult so this was an excellent way to own my home. The rent is really affordable and the service charge is brilliant for what I get,” says Jackie, a house manager at a retirement development.
Jackie found her home through Bromford Shared Ownership, a housing association that helps people buy or rent in 39 local authority areas in western England and the West Midlands.
Its website says a key part of its aims is to become “the biggest developer of affordable homes in Gloucestershire and throughout the wider M5 corridor”, and other housing associations throughout the UK are also helping those who can’t afford sky-high property prices.
“I looked at a lot of options, including moving away from the area,” says Jackie, “but when you get to my age, you don’t want anything that’s going to require a lot of work, so a new build was the best option for me. I loved having a blank canvas and having the ability to do whatever I want with my space.”
Her new home is at The Avenue development in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, a mile from work and with plenty of open space for exercising her new puppy Eddie.
“When you have been through something traumatic in your life, like I have, to come through the front door knowing you are going to be on your own and being comfortable with that, it says an awful lot.”
Bromford has a range of Shared Ownership properties that can be viewed on its website, bromford.co.uk, and its sales team can be contacted on 08009 160503.
However, Shared Ownership is only available to people with a household income of less than £80,000 a year, or £90,000 in London, and sometimes homes are only available to people already living in the area.
RULES differ throughout the UK but in England and Wales you can buy between 10 and 75 per cent of the home’s full market value while paying rent, usually to a housing association, on the share you don’t own. There may be ground rent and service charges too.
Owners can buy more shares over time but if they want to move they may have to sell back to the housing association.
The best places for further information are through the government’s website, gov.uk/shared-ownership-scheme, or mygov.scot, gov.wales and nidirect.gov.uk.
As Jackie says: “Before I purchased through Shared Ownership, I didn’t see the point in it, but I couldn’t recommend it enough now.”