Can't afford to buy? Think again

Are you struggling to get on to the housing ladder? Are you paying a fortune for a rubbish rental flat or are you living with your parents trying to save up for a deposit for your first home? Why don’t you consider buying a brand new apartment?

I know what your thinking. Yeah right! I would love a brand new shiny flat but I can’t afford that, I haven’t got enough of a deposit and I definitely couldn’t afford the mortgage!

Have you ever considered Shared Ownership? You haven’t even heard of it have you? Neither had. Well I had heard of it but didn’t really know what it was in truth, but I am delighted to announce that Scott & Stapleton are working alongside Estuary Housing in offering 'Kenway'.

'Kenway' is a block of brand new 2 bedroom apartments in central Southend all available to first time buyers under their shared ownership scheme.

Estuary Housing have been offering chances for first time buyers to buy their first properties for over 20 years under the shared ownership scheme so they are very much the experts. I am on a steep learning curve myself, but I have to say, the scheme looks great, I just wished I had known about it when I was buying my first property!

Basically you own a percentage of the property and get a mortgage on that share. This can be anything up to 75% of the overall value of the property. This obviously means that the monthly mortgage payments are much more affordable and you only need to put down 5% as a deposit of your share. This means you can be in your brand new flat with a deposit for as little as £4,250!

The other part of the property is owned by Estuary Housing and you pay a subsidised rent on this percentage. This means the total monthly payments stay very affordable and the equivalent of a bog standard rental flat. This arrangement with you just paying for your share can go on indefinitely or you can buy extra shares of the Estuary Housing as and when you can afford so that eventually you end up owning 100% of the flat. Are you still with me?

I know its a bit confusing. Let me give you an example and give you some very rough figures. It will seem much more real then hopefully?

We are offering a fabulous brand new ground floor 2 double bedroom apartment with super open plan kitchen/lounge with all the appliances, large terrace, luxury bathroom & an allocated parking space for £85,000! This works out as 40% of the total value of £212,500.

You will need to put down 5% as a deposit for your mortgage, this works out as £4,250 which is all you will have to pay up front. Estuary housing will retain the remaining 60% or £127,500 and you will pay rent on this part. This works out at under £300 a month.

As a very rough guide the monthly mortgage payments will be about £425 a month. There is of course a service charge to pay to look after all of the communal areas, sort out the buildings insurance and pay for any maintenance on the block, this works out to about £70 a month. So in summary you will pay an initial £4,250 deposit and your monthly costs will be under £800 a month! What a brilliant leg up on to the housing ladder.

If you are just starting out and looking for your first property I don’t think it gets any better? See if you can go out and find any property cheaper in our area! But the best thing is you are not compromising on the quality or the apartment.

Once you are in you can decide to buy some more of the Estuary Housing share if you wish or just carry on with your original agreement.

If in a year, 5 years or 20 years you then decide to sell and move on, no problem. Estuary Housing will find a buyer for your share at the full market value when you decide to sell and any profit made on your share is yours to keep. It doesn’t get much fairer than that.

As you can imagine this scheme is proving very popular and Kenway at Southend is selling fast. The completion of the build is imminent, so apartments are available to move into immediately. The development is in a convenient location, walking distance of Prittlewell station, close to Southend Town Centre and all the other amenities and is obviously great value.

There are 25 apartments being offered in total and 9 have already been reserved.

Call us at Scott & Stapleton today and we will make sure that you meet the criteria, book in a viewing and get you that elusive first property that you thought you couldn’t afford.

This article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton
Tel: 01702 471155

You can read all of Rob's previous articles at https://www.leigh-on-sea.com/blog/tag/property.html