11
Oct
Shared ownership to 'play vital role'
Shared ownership deals offered by housing associations will prove
an important temporary solution for first time buyers struggling
with affordability, it has been claimed.
According to a spokesperson from the National Housing Federation,
although the problem of lack of affordable housing will only be
solved in the long term by building more homes, in the meantime
shared ownership deals have "a vital role to play".
The chief advantages of the scheme are that they allow those taking
them out to only take on as much debt as they feel comfortable
with, he added.
"You can start off buying a share in your property, say 50 percent
or 75 per cent, and actually increase your ownership state over
time. You move up towards owning the place outright, but you do it
at the pace that you're comfortable with and able to do.
"The problem is, that these schemes are in very short supply and
they are very over subscribed and there are very long waiting lists
for them. We need to see supply for affordable homes go up, we need
to see investment."
News of the spokesperson's comments come as recent statistics from
homeless charity Shelter's magazine Roof showed that mortgage
repayments now account for 21 per cent of the average household's
income - up from 11 per cent in 1996.
