“For me, shared ownership has worked well in terms of putting a roof over my head.”
I bought my shared ownership home what now seems an embarrassingly long time ago – the summer of 2004, so long ago that Blair was still prime minister – and have stayed there ever since.
Riverside living
The flat is a ground-floor, one-bed, new-build in the inner Reading suburb of Caversham, with great access to local shops and the town centre plus the River Thames, not to mention excellent nearby transport networks. (I don’t drive, considering it a significant contribution to road safety.)
At the time of moving in, I’d been in a somewhat precarious rental situation with a landlady with a tendency to emotional volatility and who also worked from the place regularly, which was far from ideal. A few housemates came and went. A couple of them were lovely but the last one I think I said goodbye to through a locked bathroom door – that was how close we were.
A space of my own
Talking of bathrooms, it was probably the inevitably shared nature of the facilities which drove me to seek alternative arrangements. And shared ownership was also the only way I could afford any space of my own locally, in a part of the country where housing costs are astronomically high.
I first heard about shared ownership through some sort of marketing campaign from Reading Borough Council. Before I knew it, I was viewing the site and, with increasing interest, went back with my brother and then my parents to examine it further.
Having decided that a 40% share was my best option, I had arranged a mortgage and moved in within a few months. I haven’t changed that percentage, but I have been able to pay off my mortgage thanks to an inheritance. So now I just pay 60% rent and the service charge.
Pros and cons
For me, shared ownership has worked well in terms of putting a roof over my head for 21.5 years and allowing me to live somewhere I love, somewhere I can take part in community life, somewhere I feel very safe and from where I can easily travel to visit friends and family. I’ll have some equity if/when I come to sell, and a toe at least on the housing ladder that would simply not have been possible otherwise.
Probably the greatest downfall I can think of is the way the service charge and rent have gone up over the more than two decades I have lived here. It’s certainly doubled since I moved in, quite possibly tripled for all I know, I daren’t look at the figures for fear of what it’d do to my blood pressure.
I am also acutely aware that I’ve been lucky. There have been various articles, plus a BBC Panorama programme about shared owners who have not had such good fortune, but who have faced galloping living cost increases, bankruptcy and eviction from their dream homes, or who have become trapped, unable to sell and move on.
Equally, I have heard that the option to staircase, or buy a greater portion of the shared ownership property, isn’t as great value as it may first appear. Yet, initially, this was the key draw for me in going for my flat.
So much has happened here….
I’ve been through three housing associations in my time here. The latest one, Housing Solutions, is the best by some margin. I am a member of the residents’ panel which allows me to become involved through a range of activities, from policy reviews to mystery shopping to sitting on interview panels for senior executive recruitment at the organisation.
So much has happened while I have been living in my flat – it’s where I heard about the deaths of both my parents, new jobs, exam and medical results and so much more. I know I’ll probably have to move one day. But not just yet.
Featured image: View of Caversham from the tower of St Peter’s Church, c 1900
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