Shared Ownership Scheme

Mrs_Doyle

I realise that this topic has been discussed in the past, but I was hoping to get a thread going that would operate similarly to the 'Garda Aptitude Test' thread, in that this thread could be used as a discussion forum for people currently applying for the Shared Ownership scheme, and people who have successfully applied for the scheme.

I have recently applied for the shared ownership scheme, and received a letter the other day telling me I had been submitted for approval and would get the yay or nay in 3-4weeks.

I am really getting excited now, and with a bit of luck, I might actually be in a position to buy my first home fairly soon!

For those of you who are not entirely sure what the scheme involves, go to this link:http://www.dublincity.ie/living_in_the_city/your_home/housing_services/buying_your_home/private_home/shared_ownership_scheme.asp

Some of the finer details have changed since the above was posted.

According to my letter, the maximum loan awarded is currently €250k, and the maximum property price can be €275k.


I would be very interested to hear from people who have successfully applied for the scheme, as, assuming I am approved, I'm keen to know what happens next.

How soon is the money available to you?
Is there a time limit on when you must purchase your home? I.E. Does the loan expire?

If you applied for the loan under a single income, did you find it difficult to meet the mortgage+rent requirements?

Did you find it difficult to acquire a 'decent' home in a 'decent' area with the money that was made available to you?

Also, I would be interested in hearing from people who are currently waiting for approval and are in the same boat as myself.

If there are any boardsie's who require more information on how to apply for the scheme, and what is required of you, I will try to help you to the best of my ability.

ta2kev

Hi,
I bought my house with my partner through shared ownership around two and a half years ago. I found it a bit slow because they weren't too clear about what information they needed from us. I also came across two auctioneers who said they wouldn't deal with us because we were buying through shared ownership, they said the deal takes too long. It suited me at the time because myself and my girlfriend were only 20 and most regular lenders wouldn't go near us.
I'm currently in the process of buying out the council in order to move up the property ladder a bit. I would recommend it if there is no other feasible option, I would say, check out the other lending options and compare them. I was dealing with Laois County Council by the way, I don't know what the other councils are like.

Mrs_Doyle

Actually I do have one question. I have recently been looking at some lovely apartments in Swords... BUT... am I eligible to buy there?
As far as I know I applied through D.C.C, but Swords is zoned as Fingal.C.C

CherieAmour

All of the councils seem to do it differently. With Fingal you are on a list and are offered specific properties. You can't go out and find one as far as I know as you are buying the place directly from them.

You can apply to all the councils in Dublin for €50.

I'd look at the Affordable Housing option as well. That means you would actually own the house and pay a mortgage, but the council will decide which one suits you best.

The loan amount is based on your earnings and savings so save save save and you will get offered more.

SprostonGreen

Do you have to live in the property that you purchase through the scheme?

I live and work in Dublin and am looking to buy in Sligo, but I dont want to live there for the first year.

CherieAmour

SprostonGreen wrote:

Do you have to live in the property that you purchase through the scheme?

I live and work in Dublin and am looking to buy in Sligo, but I dont want to live there for the first year.

Yes you do have to live in it yourself. This is a strict requirement which they will mention innumerous times. You also have to sign to say you will live there.

ryan giggs

Hi,

How long did it take from the time you applied for the shared ownership up until you bought your place?

Cheers,
James

clawsthefirst

I did shared ownership this time last year, I applied to the council on a Monday and had approval and had 'bought' a place by the Friday! The trick is to get all of your documentation together and then bring all you need into Woodquay in person, they seem to process it immediatley. Then as soon as you get a certificate of approval you can go house shopping. Have to say it's the best thing I ever did as my mortgage is less than what I'd pay renting.

Mrs_Doyle

clawsthefirst wrote:

I did shared ownership this time last year, I applied to the council on a Monday and had approval and had 'bought' a place by the Friday! The trick is to get all of your documentation together and then bring all you need into Woodquay in person, they seem to process it immediatley. Then as soon as you get a certificate of approval you can go house shopping. Have to say it's the best thing I ever did as my mortgage is less than what I'd pay renting.

On the documents they sent me, it says that if I was approved for €250k I would be paying a mortgage of €700 and rent of €450 a month.
Thats €1150 a month, which is the same as what you would be paying back on a 'normal' mortgage, isn't it?

I am just trying to figure out if the Shared Ownership is really going to save me any money on a month by month basis.

Perhaps I would be better off with a normal mortgage instead?

clawsthefirst

If you can get a normal mortgage definately do that, I intend to buy out the shared ownership as soon as I can - in the long run a normal mortgage is cheaper. Do shared ownership if you don't have a deposit or instead of a 100% mortgage. Although a very good thing about shared ownership is that you only take half the hit every time interest rates go up as the council pay half the mortgage

Mrs_Doyle

clawsthefirst wrote:

If you can get a normal mortgage definately do that, I intend to buy out the shared ownership as soon as I can - in the long run a normal mortgage is cheaper. Do shared ownership if you don't have a deposit or instead of a 100% mortgage. Although a very good thing about shared ownership is that you only take half the hit every time interest rates go up as the council pay half the mortgage

Maybe I'm doing the math wrong, but the monthly mortgage + rent repayment on a 250k Shared Ownership mortgage is €1150
The monthly mortgage repayment on a normal mortgage of €250k is roughly the same, so how do you benefit on the Shared Ownership scheme?

I'm not trying to catch you out, its a genuine question. I applied for the Shared Ownership too, but lately I have been weighing up the pro's and con's and it just doesn't seem to make much financial sense.

clawsthefirst

You benefit as you don't need a huge deposit, only €1300. And as well a bank wouldn't have given me a mortgage as my earnings last year were too low. I bought a place for €210,000 on my wage of €25g, a bank wouldn't have looked at me. If you can afford to get a straight forward mortgage instead by all means do, I just didn't have the option! Oh yeah as well if you earn 28g or less per year your rent part is subsidised by the council, so I only pay €750/month. Since my wages have now gone up a good bit I intend switching to normal morgage as I won't qualify for this deduction any more and like you say, I might as well be on a full mortgage.

Mr. Presentable

The SOS doesn't cost less money, it allows you to purchase above what a lending institution might otherwise approve. My own circumstance a few years ago was the bank offered an max loan of 113,000, whereas the SOS with SDCoCo allowed up to 154,000. Usually you need to decide quickly or you may find your circumstances change and you can be outside the qualification bands.

Mrs_Doyle

I got my approval on Friday!! Yey!

OK, so I didn't get approved for as much as I would have liked, but just have to clear my loan to be approved for an addition 15k and then I'll be all set to buy.

I'm happy to wait it out, as I know prices are dropping, so I probably wont actually buy anything till September/October, but I'm still very very excited all the same!

KdjaCL

Got one off the SDCC few years ago, altho at the time it was a necessity but bear in mind what you signing up to.

Buy house for 100k
Pay mortage on 50k rent on 50k.
After X years you have to purchase the rented half at the current value not at the value when you got the mortage. The rent also increases with the value of house. If your a single mother you can claim tax on this more than most and if your a single father you can also claim tax on it. But not if your married (go FF). You can also have the rent knocked down to nearly nothing if your one of the above.

You can end up paying a lot more than the house was/is worth.

But as a starter its an affordable way into the housing market.


kdjac

Mrs_Doyle

KdjaCL wrote:

Got one off the SDCC few years ago, altho at the time it was a necessity but bear in mind what you signing up to.

Buy house for 100k
Pay mortage on 50k rent on 50k.
After X years you have to purchase the rented half at the current value not at the value when you got the mortage. The rent also increases with the value of house. If your a single mother you can claim tax on this more than most and if your a single father you can also claim tax on it. But not if your married (go FF). You can also have the rent knocked down to nearly nothing if your one of the above.

You can end up paying a lot more than the house was/is worth.

But as a starter its an affordable way into the housing market.


kdjac

I am single and have no kids, I just want to get onto the property ladder. Ideally I would start buying the council out after a few months, and then sell in 3-5years time.

starky

Mrs_Doyle wrote:

On the documents they sent me, it says that if I was approved for €250k I would be paying a mortgage of €700 and rent of €450 a month.
Thats €1150 a month, which is the same as what you would be paying back on a 'normal' mortgage, isn't it?

I am just trying to figure out if the Shared Ownership is really going to save me any money on a month by month basis.

Perhaps I would be better off with a normal mortgage instead?

Hi Mrs Doyle how did you get on with this in the end? did you go through with the shared ownership loan? I was curious where the figures 700 + 450 came from, could you tell me what percentage of the property you had intended to buy, ie 40% 50% or was it eh max 75%? Its just those figures don’t add up as far as buying a 40% share goes anyway. I look forward to hearing what you did in the end!

bikki

hi Mrs Doyle

I am currently in the process of applying for shared ownership. Have just got my forms and sent of the tax clearance form to revenue today. ive have my eye on a place already. i know that the counsil owns it. previous owners bought it through shared ownership but fell behind on repayments. it has not been occupied now for months, its just around the corner from where im renting now. and would love to stay in the area. it would really be perfect for me so fingers crossed its not snapped up by the time my appliction goes though.
anyone know how long it takes the revenue to sign that tax form?


Regards

starky

bikki wrote:

hi Mrs Doyle

I am currently in the process of applying for shared ownership. Have just got my forms and sent of the tax clearance form to revenue today. ive have my eye on a place already. i know that the counsil owns it. previous owners bought it through shared ownership but fell behind on repayments. it has not been occupied now for months, its just around the corner from where im renting now. and would love to stay in the area. it would really be perfect for me so fingers crossed its not snapped up by the time my appliction goes though.
anyone know how long it takes the revenue to sign that tax form?


Regards

I have all the forms, have not applied just yet. I went in with my TAX form personally and they did it on the spot. Cant see why it would take all that long.

bikki

....never thought going in to them...
i am bringing all the forms into the counsil though. as they will go though it to make sure nothing is missing/incorrect. rather than posting back and forth

The_Conductor

I needed a C2 clearance form from Revenue- it took about 10 days. I rang and ordered it over the phone. I was surprised that it had a plastic card on it?

Brooklyn74

starky wrote:

I went in with my TAX form personally and they did it on the spot. Cant see why it would take all that long.

Same here, just walked into the Revenue office on O'Connell Street and walked out two minutes later... you don't even have to stand in that horrendous queue.

bikki

hmm i think i may just do that tommorrow...rather that waiting any longer. really want to get the ball rolling now!
can i ask if you were also applying for shared ownership? if so, how are you finding the process?

Brooklyn74

bikki wrote:

can i ask if you were also applying for shared ownership? if so, how are you finding the process?

Yes... it's not for the faint-hearted!! Are you buying a property that you selected or did you get lucky with affordable housing?

bikki

that doesnt sound too encouraging! are you still in the process or have you bought now?

i have seen a place i would like. well actually that i want. its just perfect for what i need.
i attempted the affordable housing aplication last year but when i rang up to enquire how the application was going 5 months after i applied they said it would not be even looked at for another 4 months as i was not originally from the area....so ive given up on that...

Brooklyn74

I've bought. I did it through the affordable housing scheme so my procedure was probably a bit different to yours.

bikki

ya i guess you would have had double the work not to mind the waiting lists!

well the place im looking at is owned by the counsil. no one has been living in it for about 6/8 months now. total waste of a fab place. previous owners would have bought through shared ownership but fell behind on repayments and had to move out. problem is that the value of the place would have shot up....so im at a bit of a loss as to whether the shared owneship max purchase amount would even cover it.

starky

clawsthefirst wrote:

I did shared ownership this time last year, I applied to the council on a Monday and had approval and had 'bought' a place by the Friday! The trick is to get all of your documentation together and then bring all you need into Woodquay in person, they seem to process it immediatley. Then as soon as you get a certificate of approval you can go house shopping. Have to say it's the best thing I ever did as my mortgage is less than what I'd pay renting.

Hey, I am assuming that you bought in the DCC area, (due to your wood key reference) I have some questions about shared ownership that I though you might be able to answer, if you don’t mind that is.

Firstly after you get your initial approval what happens next?

1) Do you get an approval amount? Ie do DCC council say you have approval fro 250k and then that is what you have to play with?

2) Can you just go then and look at properties like any other buyer? For example say I had approval of 250 and I was looking at a place and I wanted to make
an offer of 225? Can I do that? Or does DCC take over when you pick a house
and do the negotiating for you? I can’t find any information on the actual biding/buying process through shared ownership.

2) What restrictions are there on the properties you can buy? Is there a size restriction eg. Over a certain square footage? Or des it simply just have to be in DCC area?

3) Can you buy an apartment? (I am guessing yes as where on earth would you find a house for less then the loan value in DCC area! J

Could you just out line your experiences, or anyone else for that matter buying in DCC with shared ownership, I am trying to decide weather to use it or just save for a while longer and get a bigger deposit together.

Thanks for anyones help!

Degsy

If you have approval go for it now.You can buy any type of property within the catchment area although to be realistic you're unlikley to be able to buy an actual house.Even so its a foothold on the property ladder and a chance to start making equity too.As for saving a deposit,you'd need 25-30 grand AND the bank would have to approve your mortage,for many people its impossible.To answer your questions,its exactly like buying a house on the open market,the council take no decision inthe property as long as its above 49m square,fit for family habitation and doesnt include any unnauthorised extensions.The 250 or whatever is the maximum amount you have to play with,if you can get somewhere that doesnt cost that,so much the better and you wont have to pay as much either.You make an offer to the estate agent in the normal way,if its accepted you give them your ref number and they enter negotiations with the council(you pay your 1300 deposit at this time).Teh council will appoint a solicitor and do all the legal work,all you need to do is get a Family Home Declaration (PM me if anybody wants one,it'll save you a few bob!) signed by a commisioner of oaths,you'll be then given a date for completion,you sign for the gaff and you get your keys.Its actaully a very painless way to buy a property and i recomend it to all fisrt time buyers.

starky

Degsy wrote:

If you have approval go for it now.You can buy any type of property within the catchment area although to be realistic you're unlikley to be able to buy an actual house.Even so its a foothold on the property ladder and a chance to start making equity too.As for saving a deposit,you'd need 25-30 grand AND the bank would have to approve your mortage,for many people its impossible.To answer your questions,its exactly like buying a house on the open market,the council take no decision inthe property as long as its above 49m square,fit for family habitation and doesnt include any unnauthorised extensions.The 250 or whatever is the maximum amount you have to play with,if you can get somewhere that doesnt cost that,so much the better and you wont have to pay as much either.You make an offer to the estate agent in the normal way,if its accepted you give them your ref number and they enter negotiations with the council(you pay your 1300 deposit at this time).Teh council will appoint a solicitor and do all the legal work,all you need to do is get a Family Home Declaration (PM me if anybody wants one,it'll save you a few bob!) signed by a commisioner of oaths,you'll be then given a date for completion,you sign for the gaff and you get your keys.Its actaully a very painless way to buy a property and i recomend it to all fisrt time buyers.

Thanks for that, It sounds straight forward. I'd say there is a higher chance of me getting a mortgage then finding a property that’s 49 Square Meters in the DCC area for a suitable price! I will lash in the old application anyway, it can do me any harm, in the mean time while I am saving, maybe a 50 Square Meter property will fall out of the sky! I don’t fancy my chances finding a suitable property! maybe in another six months the prices will drop more.

Degsy

starky wrote:

Thanks for that, It sounds straight forward. I'd say there is a higher chance of me getting a mortgage then finding a property that’s 49 Square Meters in the DCC area for a suitable price! I will lash in the old application anyway, it can do me any harm, in the mean time while I am saving, maybe a 50 Square Meter property will fall out of the sky! I don’t fancy my chances finding a suitable property! maybe in another six months the prices will drop more.

You might as well do it,most one bed apartments are bigger than that!Everybody i know who applied for the scheme got somewhere very quickly.Dont be afraid to look in areas like finglas and ballymun,you can find very good deals there and all these areas are being regenerated!