We've been looking at the possibility of buying a flat using the My Choice Home Buy Scheme and taking a 50% share which will cost us £67,000 but the advisor we spoke to says that none of the banks or building societies will give us a mortgage unless we have at least 10% deposit. As we only have about £4,000 in savings this just throws it all out of the window. But is that really right? The way we worked it out, we only wanted a 50% loan to value mortgage, so why do we need a deposit? Our credit record is completely clear so we were not expecting this to be so difficult?

For Homebuy or keyworkers schemes Halifax can lend up to 100% of your share - hopefully Ian 'completefinance' will see your post as he has a great deal of knowledge in this area.

Hope this helps - let us know how you get on.

Burger

Hi...lenders will only lend up to their LTV criteria, whether it is for the full share or a part share. What you have to realize is that even though you are borrowing 50% of the value of the property the lender will only have an interest in that 50% share. If you apply directly Halifax will lend up to 97% of that 50% share if you have an account with them, but there are higher lending charges, something that you have to put with in this climate I'm sorry.

---

Regards

Ian

Thanks for the explanation - it just seems wrong to us that the Government are making out that they are making it all so possible for people like us to get a place, without making it clear that you still have to have 10% deposit. (Unless you already have a Halifax account).

We are now thinking maybe we could get a personal loan to bridge the gap, although that will take quite a chunk out of our monthly budget.

hi there

we've had a shared ownership mortgage for 3 years now. we had no problem in getting one 3 years ago with 5% deposite with halifax but i am never going to go for a shared ownership deal again! just to warn you in advance, the conveyancing takes months and months to complete, and when it's your time to sell you are completely stung with additional costs incurred from all parties involved. The solicitors bill will be probable double a normal 'house move' bill. We are selling at the moment and are going to rent privately until the market sorts itself out. I really would advise you to think about buying into shared ownership, as you say the government make you think they're doing you a favour but I just feel as if we've been hung, drawn and quartered by the government etc.

Hopefully we will rent for a couple of years and then view the market at that stage. If prices come down we can then buy on the open market which will give us more choice where we want to live rather than snatching whatever shared ownership properties come up.

Hope this is helpful to you ...........

Hi

I have sold my 25% share of my property after 11 years and due to move in 2 weeks. I have made 3 times the value of the original mortgage that I took it with the Halifax which was 95% of the 1/4 share value.

As I was only selling a 1/4 share the estate agent fees were smaller and the only extra fee I had to pay was for £175 to the housing Association for their Legal Fees.

There are more lenders that do shared ownership mortgages now than there was 11 years ago and I was offered 5 lenders at that time to chose from.

good Luck!