Wave goodbye to dodgy landlords, say hello to home ownership
When Sarah Meloy and husband Lee found out they were expecting their first child, they realised that their rented place simply wouldn’t be big enough to accommodate a growing family.
Fortunately, a friend recommended they look into the Extended Open Market HomeBuy scheme run by Metropolitan Home Ownership (MHO) and the Meloys quickly realised it would offer the solution to their renting woes.
The scheme gives people who can’t afford to buy a home on the open market the opportunity to choose where they want to live and helps them to pay for it by offering an interest free loan up to 25% of the value of their new home.
The couple were married in April 2006 and had always lived in rented accommodation. But, having been at the mercy of one too many immoral landlords, they knew it was time to find an alternative to paying high rents and their general lack of control over where they lived.
“We see rent as dead money and we really wanted to invest in property and because I was pregnant, we knew that we needed somewhere larger, with a garden,” says Sarah.
Sarah’s job as a nursing sister at Hillingdon Hospital in Middlesex meant that she qualified as a key worker and made her a perfect candidate to apply to buy a home through the scheme.
The couple didn’t think they would ever find somewhere on their limited budget, but once MHO gave them the go-ahead after providing a financial check-up, they started to view suitable properties.
“The scheme gave us much more choice than the open market about where we could live within our price range,” says Sarah. “With the money we had, we thought we would only be able to afford a flat, but we desperately wanted a garden to offer some freedom to our young child.”
All of a sudden, the couple found a two-bedroom house with a garden in Stanwell, Middlesex, and they couldn’t believe their luck when they realised that it ticked all their boxes.
“The property had been on the market for only 12 hours after the previous buyer had pulled out, so we had to move quickly,” she says. “Fortunately, the property had been empty for a while and the seller wanted to sell it quickly, so we were able to get it for a good price.”
The home was valued at £189,950 and the Meloys took out a £147,000 mortgage with Yorkshire Building Society to buy it. They also took advantage of the Extended Open Market HomeBuy scheme to borrow a further 25% of the value of their home interest free.
They borrowed a further £23,000 from the building society, which remains interest-free for five years, and another £23,000 interest-free loan from MHO, which only has to be returned if Sarah leaves the nursing sector.
They moved into their new home in July 2007 and now have much more space to enjoy with their young daughter, Lucia. Their monthly mortgage repayments are £910 – some £135 more than their previous monthly rent – but the couple believe this increase is easily offset by their new found independence and is over £100 a month more affordable than buying without assistance.
“This place is our home,” says Sarah. “We can do whatever we like to it and we don’t have to deal with another dodgy landlord ever again.”