Believe or not, there is actually a social housing regulator and a housing ombudsman. I think the problem is that under the current Shared Ownership rules, set by Government, they are allowed to do what they are doing.

You're welcome, Ayo! And I'm also grateful to Alex for sharing her experience 🙏🏿

Haha! Shameless plug! Great video btw! I've done a video on Rent to Buy but don't think there's nearly enough content about renting on YT. It's an area I'd like to cover as well!

*meant to say ‘not nearly’!

@@SelfInvested Totally shameless 🙈 but if it helps the peoples I'm okay with being a little shameless haha (I actually never plug my videos in comments 😂)

I like your channel so it’s cool 😉

@@SelfInvested Yay thanks!! 😄

Glad you enjoyed it! And yes, thank you, Alex!!

Thank you, Jeff! Yes, I agree. My hope is that many will learn from each interviewee's experience...

Hi Katie, thank you for sharing your experience, and you are absolutely right, it's important that you do your homework before making such a major decision. Thank you as well for your offer to share your story. Can you drop me an email (lemuelstudios@gmail.com) or add me on IG (@SelfInvested_UK)? Also, can I ask whether you are buying a Shared Ownership house or flat?

@@SelfInvested I am buying a flat, I will follow you on IG

@@katiethompson4034 Awesome!

You're welcome! Her experience was way too stressful! I'm just happy she's able to laugh about it now!

Sorry to hear that. I hope these videos will help to make people more informed before going into schemes such as Shared Ownership

can i just ask what your plan was after shared ownership?

Thank you! I appreciate your comment! Are you consider the scheme for yourself?

@@SelfInvested Not after watching this video haha Don't want to share with the housing association or even with the gov't (HTB scheme). I would rather wait for the '5% deposit' scheme to roll out in April this year and just buy the whole property outright if I can.

That would be my preference!

I’m glad you found it helpful! Are you a shared owner or someone considering the scheme?

You’re welcome, thank you for watching. I have loads of videos on the scheme. You can check them out on my channel page. Hope you find them useful ;)

You’re welcome. Thank you for watching! I hope things go well with the sale of your place. If you do buy again, you’ll probably have a better idea of what to avoid with flats

can i just ask what your plan is after shared ownership?

Yh, I agree. The housing association wasn’t great, but the Shared Ownership scheme is flawed in a number of ways. Check this video out: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iJicmNZnvtLJXXk.html

Thank you Tolu! I'm glad you enjoyed watching. You're right, the scheme is supposed to be more affordable, but selling your Shared Ownership home can be more expensive...

Thank you! I'm uploading another today!

Our pleasure! I'm glad you found it useful!

I think you're right, unfortunately. Although Shared Ownership is supposed to be an affordable housing product, housing associations see the scheme as a revenue stream to fund their other activities - robbing Peter to pay Paul!

@@SelfInvested Exactly, there is a hierarchy of who gets treated the best it goes Freeholder who pays ground rent, Then multi leaseholder, then single leaseholder, the renting tenant, then shared ownership tenant. Definite revenue stream. When it comes to selling have diary dates (and the time line of teh process and ask them to send it to you too) and be on top calling and emailing them regularly follow up with emails so you have a trail, Behind the scenes, their administration is a mess with temp staff and high staff turnover and no one wanting to take responsibility for things. If you make a loss due to their incompetence and delays and can show it with an audit trail write a strong complaint (make sure you label it complaint or they mark it inquiry or some rubbish, then email and post it in) and ask for financial compensation and cc in the cheif exec. They will bend over to assist you.

I see what you mean to a point. Was having an argument with our mortgage advisor over buying a 1 bed outright in SE London. Problem is with a child and limited deposit saved their are few options

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope Alex was able to help!

@@SelfInvested and yes, she’s been a great support , thanks x

@@sense1983 Ah, good! Happy to hear that!

Thank you! I’m glad you think so! Yeah, the more parties involved, the longer things take...

Thank you as always! I think you mean December '2020', right? It's a positive change to the Help to Buy Equity Loan, but it's not clear whether this extends to the Shared Ownership scheme.

@@SelfInvested yes Dec 2020! Very positive indeed. I have seen some developer already saying zero ground rent on SO properties! I suppose the change is inevitable so they are tagging along because there is still a lease involved. Buyers can mention to the developer earlier on that their leases should not attract ground rent (whether new or resales) I believe anything can be negotiated and its best to get the conversation going early on. 👍🏼

You're welcome! I'm glad you found it interesting :)

Yes it was! I'm glad you found it interesting!

Thank you for leaving a comment! You're right, everyone's situation is different. People need to do their research and perhaps get professional advice to check if the scheme is right for them. I just hope these videos help people understand the scheme better!

it’s difficult to argue with you!

It is

It sure sounds it!

It sounds it. I’ve been put off completely now. The one I was looking at was in one of the most affluent areas in Manchester but service charge was absolutely ridiculous and the flat itself was so small and probably not very well made like a house would be.

Don’t get me wrong the scheme does work for some people. The main thing is to do your research, weigh up your options, do some number crunching and see if it works for you. I think a big problem with the scheme is that people sign up to it without having a good understanding of how it works...

@@SelfInvested I agree...for me I personally would like to use one of the schemes to help me get my foot on the property laser and hopefully gain a return on my investment. So budgeting and long term goals I think help to buy is a better option 🤷🏾‍♀️

Make sure you buy a good property in a good location on good terms. I think I prefer H2B over SO, but H2B homes tend to be more expensive and there’s is a higher barrier to entry because the biggest loan you can get is 40% in London, whereas you can buy just 25% with SO

i'm only earning 17.5k a year, im saving for a 40k deposit and im worried about what my mortgage would be. Im looking for a sharred ownership 1 or 2 bed flat around 90-120k

One last thing. If her mum had bought and sold properties in London why not sell to her daughter or help gift her daughter money to buy a property outright?

The thing is you can't choose to buy a lower percentage than you can afford. The housing association you buy from will say you need to buy the maximum share that you can afford. I wouldn't use the scheme if I wasn't sure about it because it's a big decision to be unsure about.

@@SelfInvested yeah I had no idea that you couldnt choose the percentage that you wanted to buy at. This is not talked about enough. I've subscribed. Cant wait to your next video.

@@fungirl0123456 Can’t wait to share it with you!

You’re welcome 🙏🏿Thank you for watching 👍🏿

You are very welcome!

She actually chose to go back to renting because she was unhappy with her flat and wanted to travel (which she explained later on in our chat but is not in the video). Staircasing to 100% and extending the lease of a property are two separate processes, but I have heard of them being done in parallel. If you staircase to 100%, it doesn't automatically mean the lease gets extended. The staircasing process that happened when she sold was to enable the buyer to buy 100% of the property.

Thanks Rox! Yes, I'm sure the general experience of someone with a Shared Ownership house is much better than someone with a flat. It will probably also be easier to sell, as houses are generally more attractive than flats. However, depending on how much of the property you buy, it may be harder to sell to another shared owner, and you may have to sell on the open market, which will be a longer and more expensive process.

Also houses can be sold as leasehold

You're so welcome! Glad you found it useful :)

I know, right?! And it's supposed to be 'affordable housing'!!

I know, right?!

Yes, it turned out to be an extremely long process! She ended up making a £500 loss after selling her flat. She was renting a place for £1,400/month before she bought her Shared Ownership flat, which cost her £1,300/month (including mortgage, rent and service change), so she was still probably still better off financially overall. But the financials of the situation don't account for the stress she experienced. Also, she is now renting a place for £1,100/month.

Thank you Gregory 🙏🏿

Yeah, it's not easy when you have so many parties involved...

It is difficult and most single people will be unable to, but it possible. You do need a few things to go in your favour, however...

You're welcome CK. I'm you enjoy the content. TBH, I'm not sure hopefully someone that sees this message can answer, but do know developers do sell flats through estate agents as well. If the developer sells it through the estate agent, you're still buying from the developer who is essentially the vendor - the estate agent is only the middleman...

@@SelfInvested Thanks man

I know! Thankfully she’s out of it!

I believe she said L&Q in the video, but will need to double check...

Thank you. I was hoping it was Optivo. Have you got an videos of Optivo selling process??

@@gailgrayson5654 Sorry, I don’t but I would expect the process to be fairly similar. Are you looking at an Optivo property? You could ask them directly...

Are you buying a Shared Ownership house or apartment (flat)? Are you sure the price is discounted? The full price (100%) of a Shared Ownership home tends to be cheaper than an equivalent home sold privately by estate agents/developers - I think this is because Shared Ownership homes have to be sold at market value (determined by a surveyor), whereas privately sold homes try to maximise the price whatever the true value is. I'm not sure I can comment on your situation, but, generally speaking, if I could buy a home without the Shared Ownership scheme, I would because staircasing can workout more expensive than buying outright (even if the price at the start is lower). And if I did buy a home through Shared Ownership and I seriously wanted to staircase to 100%, I would do it as quickly as possible because house prices tend to rise over time. Have you looked going for an existing property instead of new build?

@@SelfInvested Yeah there’s been new build apartments in the area built at the same time and they are much more expensive however they are with the big developers. Thanks for the info. I’ve looked at buying an existing build however there is not many in the area and location I’m looking for that I like. I could wait rent save up more and buy a full property however I’m tired of renting I’ve had mold problems in past two rented houses and landlords just don’t care

It depends on the terms of your lease. But generally, yes. If you own 100% of your property, you can usually rent it out.

Not sure. I'll ask her for you

The only difference under the new scheme, as I understand it, is that instead of having to wait 8 weeks to take your property to the open market, you'll only have to wait 4 weeks. I'll double check, but I think that's it...

In terms of Shared Ownership, or just generally?

@@SelfInvested generally... London's just expensive and you can easily make mistakes while transacting in real estate. In 2017 I was going to buy a shared ownership one bedroom apartment in London which has already been 100% staircased, but there was a clause in the lease prohibiting leaseholders from letting it out for more than six months at a time. I decided not to buy it in the end. I almost missed out on that particular clause while reading the lease. I basically almost bought the wrong thing.

High real estate prices also equate to higher fees for the agents and lawyers etc. not exactly for the faint-hearted.

Manchester is now on a par with London because everyone keeps moving here 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

@@saz6511 I would love to move there myself and experience it! honestly i know London all too well

We all make mistakes, bro. She was sharing hers to help others...

@@SelfInvested yeah I appreciate that, I'm not trying to bash her. I just don't understand how her mom was a property developer but didn't pass on any knowledge or maneuvers to navigate properly. Seems very strange. On KZfaq you're gonna get questions and skeptism like from me and others. That's how life is.

No problem. She said she’s happy to answer questions, you can find her IG in the description

I don't blame you!

Hi Linda! Best to read your contract to see what it says. If it is unclear, you can ask your housing provider to clarify. Did you decide the scheme wasn’t for you before or after watching this video?

At least she's out now

Yes, thankfully!

It depends on a number of factors, but in Alex’s situation, she found that Shared Ownership homes with a smaller share were easier to sell. Also, housing associations get you to buy the largest share you can afford, so you can’t necessarily buy a smaller share even if you wanted to

It has worked for people. The important thing is to do your research and weigh up all your options!

@@SelfInvested I say rent somewhere that is reasonably cheap and save up money even if it takes 10 years , work hard at work and increase ur income and then buy a house or flat 100% outright… home ownership is hard work

In terms of how much she bought it for and spent to sell it, I think she lost £500...