Rent-free and easy
Eileen Mulligan was ecstatic to learn that she had bought her home outright – especially as the process to buy her remaining share with Metropolitan Home Ownership (MHO) only took three weeks.
The process – known as staircasing – began and ended in October 2007, when Eileen was told she had become the sole owner of her one-bedroom maisonette in Haringey. “I felt like I didn’t have to do anything because MHO did everything necessary,” she says. “Within a few weeks Laura Rose in the Residential Sales Team called to tell me I owned the whole place. I was elated.”
The process usually takes around three months, but after Eileen had applied to put the wheels in motion, MHO did the rest, which included revaluing the property, supplying the solicitor and overseeing that all the other details ran smoothly.
“In the three weeks between applying and hearing that I’d done it, I didn’t even have to call MHO once,” says Eileen. “The saleswoman called to say there were no problems and really understood my desire to own outright as quickly as possible. It was a nice personal service.”
Eileen had bought her first 62.5% share through MHO five years earlier, when she took over the equity share originally paid for by one of the first people to benefit from the shared ownership concept in 1989.
Working people on low to moderate incomes can get a foot on the property ladder by buying a home through New Build Homebuy (which is often referred to as shared ownership), which allows first time buyers to purchase an initial share of between 25 and 75% of a property’s value at a newly built development and buy the remainder when they can afford to.
The original owner of Eileen’s home had also bought through MHO, which has managed the property ever since it was built on the site of the Old Prince of Wales Hospital in north London. When Eileen bought her first share, her home included a Juliet balcony next to the bedroom and a fitted bathroom and kitchen.
She was keen to buy the rest because, in almost six years, it had doubled in value. Eileen’s first 62.5% cost her £56,000, based on a full market value of £80,000. In October 2007, it was re-valued at £160,000, so the remaining 37.5% cost her £55,000.
“Push came to shove and I thought if I didn’t do it now I never will,” says Eileen. “If the value continued going up, I may have become priced out of owning my home outright.” She hopes that the property market will enable her to make some paper gains when she eventually decides to sell.
Until she bought outright, Eileen paid a £350 mortgage and a monthly rent of £130 and a £70 maintenance charge. “Not paying anymore rent has given me an enormous sense of freedom,” she says.
Eileen has enjoyed living in the area, which is “brilliant” for transport links, which take her anywhere in central London within half an hour; also very handy for her job as an office PA in Holborn.
“Before I bought my first share, I lived in this area with other people,” she says.” But owning my own home has given me so much independence and now it’s all mine.”