Help to Own was set up by the city council, West Midlands Combined Authority, and fund management business Frontier Development Capital Ltd, for “working families struggling to save enough deposit to fulfil their dream of home ownership”.
The council said the scheme provided long-term rent security and enabled tenants to build up a “loyalty premium” as they made their monthly payments.
This can be taken as cash if they leave the scheme within 20 years, or they can buy the home for just £1 a quarter of a century after joining.
@PixieKnuckles , l think you are right Pixie ?
We must have the worst value for your money when buying
property in the world ??
Tiny plots, tiny rooms , low ceilings and ancient stock !!
Donkeyman!
Oh I agree, Donkeyman…our housing stock is atrocious. Its all boxes on boxes with no garden, for the most part - and they charge an arm and a leg for it! I don’t understand, I really don’t.
I am not familiar with Wedensfield, Percy, but if you were homeless and wanted your own step on the housing ladder, its not a bad deal right off the bat!
Having said that, I don’t think I would buy my place for a pound. Its not that bad as property goes, but I wouldn’t get it sold in later years if I wanted to move, haha!
I was chatting to the gas man who lives in London while he was fixing sisters radiator yesterday. I dont mean to divert the thread but its interesting. He told me his dad bought a house in London in 1958 for £2k . The old man has recently died and the family just sold the house for £2 .2 million. It has 6 bedrooms . It sold even before the for sale sign was put up .
Susan I don’t mind an occasional thread derailment
That is amazing…what a phenomenal increase in value! I’m also hearing up here that some properties are going for £240,000+ above the asking price! You could buy another house for that. There’s money in the UK, no matter what people are saying.
@PixieKnuckles Yes there is a lot of money in the UK Pixie,
Particularly in London !! But most of it is owned by banks
and Arabs and Russians etc!
They are a major cause of high property prices. in London which
is now spreading to other parts of the country !!
If we could ever reduce these prices the banks would go
bankrupt and normal householders would lose their property !!
Donkeyman!
Yes, I was aware that the foreign rich own swathes of property down south. Its ridiculous, frankly and shouldn’t be allowed. But money is money…its the same up here (albeit on a smaller scale) when rich southerners buy up property for second homes and live in them for two weeks a year. The prices sky rocket meaning that local people are priced out of the market.
Anyway, I’m derailing my own thread now, so I’d better get back on track before I flag myself!
Although these houses are not 100% council-owned isn’t this similar to what happened some 30 or 40 years ago with the ‘Right To Buy’ when council houses were sold at knockdown prices to existing tenants. This generally depleted the council housing available, following this those who just want somewhere to live haven’t a chance other than renting privately. Council housing should be used to help those who wish to buy their own homes, to help for them to save a deposit to buy their own home and then move on, leaving that council house for another person to save for their own home and so it should continue.
When this scheme first came in I knew of people who were buying their own private houses but were also buying the council house perhaps their parents lived in, taking advantage of the massive discounts offered, just to make themselves a big profit when sold.
Now look at the problems people face when just wanting somewhere to live, a chance to perhaps save a deposit to buy their own house. No chance with so few council houses and with private housing at the prices we see now. A young couple wishing to buy their first home for say, £200,000 need to save a minimum £20,000 deposit. How are they supposed to achieve that when paying sky-high rents in the private sector while also needing to live?
Yes it was DM. One other factor came into all this which was whatever a council house was sold for this money couldn’t be used to build more council houses. Where was the sense in that? All it did was to allow the stock of council houses to slowly become less so more and more people struggled to get somewhere to live, even if that was only temporary while they saved to buy privately. Also I wonder who the private landlords were who also bought houses under the ‘Right To Buy’ scheme?
It sounds like a good deal for them but I suppose it’s more like a no deposit mortgage because they have to live there and pay rent for 25 years before they can buy it for £1?
It doesn’t say what the rent is, or if it’s fixed or will go up with inflation but if it’s comparable to what they’d pay for a mortgage, then in 25 years they will have paid a lot of the value of the house
I wonder what would happen if they lost their job and had to claim housing benefit? Would the years they were on housing benefit count towards the 25?
Yes DM, that was about it. No thought given to anyone, who in the future, might need just a start on the housing ladder. Also while private landlords were buying up these council properties at massively discounted prices to let out at sky high rents, I knew of many well-off business people who bought their discounted council houses and spent the rest of their lives living in them. No chance for any youngsters, or anyone else either, being given a chance to rent these houses as they were then in the private sector.
Interesting point, Maree…we shall never know though.
When we moved into this place 20 odd years ago, there was the option to buy it at a discount price after 10 years. Heading into year 9 of this time period, we were informed that the law had changed and it was no longer an option! Pretty glad actually, because we would never have sold it for what its value was.
