Renting? Shared Ownership?

Gosh, I'm so glad to be in NI then as the general vibe from them has not been scammy at all!. There's just one standard monthly charge here. 

yeah alot of shared ownership they make you pay ground rent aswell. ontop of service charge... which is madness but they explain it as the service charge is for them to maintain the building and ground rent is to maintain the gardens and grounds... but yet they also say if the building needs to be fixed or maintained you have to do it yourself and pay for it yourself... so yeah theres twisting layers of scammery in shared ownership where they just want you to pay for nothing.

I'mintending to not buy back the increments and, should I not wake up dead before I retire, then the mortgage part will be paid off and the rent left as an affordable dripfeed... I hope!

I don't pay ground rent. The co-ownership people cover that... oh, wait - is it somehow hidden inside the overall cost of things? Um, not sure. But I wouldn't make that a deal-breaker... it's a relative drop in the ocean and I think the pros outweigh the cons in the right conditions. 

I've played that game from both perspectives and never liked it, so to find that it was a model an aspect of for real life, came as quite the shock.

The way to win, I found, is not to play that game.

Games are for fun, housing is serious survival stuff, so why we let speculators play games with our housing stock. I'll never understand. 

Though of course, some certainty that you want to be in the place you've chosen for the long haul helps considerably. Otherwise the factors that others have mentioned - falling value in uncertain times etc. - could be a downside. So, choose wisely... but if you do I think you'll be happy.

Oh, yes - practicalities: I spoke to a free mortgage adviser (they get a small amount via the banks in the event of a successful sale - not sure how exactly) as my first step. Then when a property was found and I put my offer in, that was the time to ask co-ownership to help.. and thankfully they agreed. Subject to their own survey and ultimately getting the place re-wired while taking the risk that the sale might fall through... but it was a risk I considered worth it for my dream home. Which I'm so lucky to say I have. It's the house I want to be found dead in. Or, to put it more pleasantly euphomistically/conventionally... my forever home. 

I got my home through co-ownership (as they call it where I live) and highly recommend it. I think it's a fair generalisation to say that for various reasons we autistics have lower incomes, so an arrangement where the rent 'half' (or 40% in my case) is devoid of the overheads a private landlord would add really does help considerably, making the overall monthly cost about a fifth less than it would for a full mortgage.

It's as close as you can get to renting with a guarantee of a permanent stay, and you can also have much more freedom with how you decorate, renovate... or exercise your right to do neither! 

Hope all goes well for you with getting somewhere...

I have avoided renting like the plague in my adult life.

Try playing monopoly and notice the strategy of the one who wins. Is it the renter or the rent seeker?

Long story short I work full time not addicted to anything that could harm me in the near future and I’m currently living with family so they aren’t interested other than trying to make me go into a house share and private rent it 

Why wont the local housing dept help you? By that i mean why cant you put your bame on the housing list? 

There used to be a scgeme called help to buy. Im not sure if its still available. 

nah i didnt even do my flat up as it was ok enough condition. not gonna sell as its always livable. dont need to sink more money into a house to live in when my cheap flat can be lived in. that way all my future money goes to saving for retirement. although yeah i do need to perhaps bear in mind anything can happen to flats in a lifetime... but i do hope to stay in it to the end of my days and not need to stress about moving again. lifes easier when you stick with a thing.

So like what buy a flat do it up live in it for a year and then sell it on use the funds for another house? That kind of thing?

The more deposit you can afford to put down the smaller the mortgage payments will be on a small share of a property. Or if you use a larger deposit to buy a bigger share then the rent payment will be less. Have you considered talking to a mortgage advisor? They take your bank statements and payslips and put all the numbers into their software and it tells them what you can afford to do. Might give you a clearer answer because they’ll have all the specific details about your finances

I’ve looked at a couple and you pay the standard deposit and the rent then becomes So much less like council property rent less than and it seemed like such a good idea at the time but I’m gullible I know that and just want to know what I would be getting myself into if I chose that route 

Don’t get me wrong. I made mistakes and it’s cost me a lot of money. 10 grand in my savings trying to help my significant other and bailing him and his kids out of things. So yes I made some stupid mistakes and if I didn’t I could probably have enough for a house so yes I was stupid but now I’m trying correct but it feels too late 

I don’t really have a year, my end goal is a little 2-3 bed house. Get a mortgage and just live there for the rest of my life. However it’s so hard right now. I’m saving as Much as I can and now my wages have gone up hopefully my savings will go up faster but everything is so so expensive now and it’s so disheartening. I’m doing my driving lessons but I can’t afford a car, I get a decent wage for my age and experience but I can’t afford to move out. Life just seems like a massive catch 22 

Council won’t help me because I work. They keep telling me to do a house share but it’s something I’m not comfortable with doing at all and I need my own space. Renting is expensive and I can’t afford mortgage at the moment and I don’t want to end up in debt trying to pay off a mortgage. I’ve moved so many times in my childhood that I’m just trying to find somewhere to live without having to move very bloody year. I have no roots and just want to stop moving around all the time

only idea i have is what i did.... not care about standards, look for the cheapest dump on the market that no one is bothering touching. buy that. everything else will sell in the first day of listing and before your allowed to place a offer its always sold. need to buy undesirable cheap dumps that no one is touching, like my communist looking dilapidated looking flat lol which only looks like a dump on the outside... on the inside its big, way bigger than modern flats.... infact its as big as a unmodified bungalo plus has a garage too. but people didnt want these as they look ugly from the outside lol

my other plan was always to buy a cheap yacht... like a 3k cost westerly centaur... and live in a scottish sea loch as that would be most secure and not as wavy, relatively flat and easy to anchor from.

Ways I've seen low/intermittent income type people win at housing.

1. Buy with a mortgage and sublet most of it getting the tenants to help you pay it off quicker.

2. Rent a large falt e.g. over a shop, and sublet for more than yrou rent, saving the money towards your forthcoming house purchase.

3. Buy or rent a narrowboat, live cheaply and save for the house.

4. Buy something really, really cheap, pay of the mortage quickly due to hard work and frugality and sublet it, augmenting yoru income so you can get a larger place with a bigger mortage. 

Anyoen else know any suggestions?

My own idea was to buy some land (done) and build a clandestine refuge (part done) to be able to go and live in if my current housing arrangement fails...