MHO help a young family get a move on
Laura and Mark Dixon didn’t have far to move when they bought their property through Metropolitan Home Ownership (MHO) – it was only a couple of streets away. They had been living with Laura’s parents for two years and were becoming desperate to live in a home of their own.
“I became pregnant, so we really needed to get a move on,” says Laura. “We were keen to get on the property ladder and we’d been saving, but everything on the open market was too expensive.”
The couple were disheartened by how little they could get for their money. But on her way to work, Laura kept passing a newly built MHO development – Balgove Court at Eden Grove.
She liked the look of it but the couple wrongly assumed they couldn’t qualify for New Build HomeBuy (previously known as shared ownership) schemes because neither are key workers and they earned a decent income: Laura as an interior designer and Mark as an electrician.
Then, when Laura saw an advert for Balgove Court in a local newspaper, she suddenly realised they were eligible to buy a part-buy, part-rent home because they earned more than the minimum income levels set by MHO and crucially, they lived locally.
“I went along to an open weekend at Balgove Court and saw these brand new apartments, where everything was new and clean,” says Laura. “Instead of flats that we’d seen elsewhere that needed a lot of work for their price, these were new and ready to move into.”
At the open day, Laura was told that because the couple had a baby they would be given priority, but would first need to register at www.housingoptions.co.uk – the one-stop online portal offering hundreds of low cost, home ownership properties available in London – a process she found very easy.
So, in a race against time, Laura completed the online form when she arrived home from the open day. That was a Friday evening and – because of a backlog – she only received her housing options number on Tuesday morning. “By then, all the apartments had been allocated, so we were put on the reserve list and prayed that someone would change their minds,” says Laura.
“Sure enough, a week later an apartment became available and was offered to us,” says Laura. Only a few months after viewing and applying for the property, the couple had moved in.
They bought a 60% share of a two-bedroom, second floor apartment under the New Build Homebuy scheme. The scheme allows first time buyers struggling to get onto the property ladder to purchase whatever share they can afford and pay rent on the part they don’t own.
“It’s really bright and airy, and it’s a very quiet development because it’s on church land – we can hear the church bells ringing next door,” says Laura. “You wouldn’t think we were just off the high road.
“MHO were great throughout,” says Laura. “There was an event here with the local MP to officially open the development and I gave the MHO saleswoman a big kiss. Now that we’ve moved into our own place, it’s totally changed our lives.”