No looking back for Michael McDonald
After years of renting flats, Michael McDonald had had enough. He was 49 and had ended up back with his parents while he looked for his next place to live. Most first-time buyers are younger than him, but he decided it’s never too late.
“I’d been looking for places to buy but they kept falling through,” says Michael, who works as an instructor at a college in north London. “Prices were also very high. Eventually I noticed an ad in the local paper for Metropolitan Home Ownership’s New Build HomeBuy (then known as shared ownership) homes. It sounded good and I thought I’d better give them a ring before I lost yet another opportunity.”
When he did, Michael was told there was an apartment he could look at straight away. It was in Barnet, and Michael had been moving around that part of north London for years so he already knew and liked the area.
“I popped up to have a look one evening after work, and within five minutes I’d said yes,” says Michael. “I fell in love with it instantly.”
The property was priced at £130,000, and because it was on offer as a shared ownership property, Michael could buy 40% of it and pay rent on the remainder.
“It was a very smooth process. I went for an interview with Metropolitan, and provided all my details, about finances and my employment. They helped me find a mortgage too.”
The home Michael bought was part of a small development above shops on the high street, and he enjoys the buzz of living somewhere so lively. ‘It’s not a big place’, he says, but that was just what he wanted as a single person.
“My last rented place was too big, and this is just perfect,” he says. “It’s a one-bedroom apartment and it’s just the right size for me.”
The whole process, from applying to moving in, took two or three months. Michael was delighted with the ease of the process, and the fact that unlike his rented flats, he now owns a place with brand new fixtures and fittings.
“It’s all totally new,” he says. “The boiler is new, the carpets are new. It’s all spotless. It would have been impossible for me to buy a nice place in a location I liked on the open market. My monthly outgoings are higher now, but it’s definitely worth it. I finally have freedom and privacy, and it’s nice to know I can come and go as I please.”