THE ORCHARD

SHARED OWNERSHIP

We caught up with one of our buyers who purchased on our development 'The Orchard' 9 months after completion to see how the process was for him…

During the pandemic, he started to look for a bigger rental property, with him and his wife working from home in a one bedroom flat in Salford, there just wasn’t enough space for them to both work and live comfortably. With private rent prices being so high he just couldn’t justify paying out so much for what he saw as ‘having no investment’ so with some money saved up as a deposit, he started to search for a property to buy.

Initially he started to look at properties on the open market, the houses in the price range he was looking at needed a lot of work and therefore a lot more time and money would have been needed to allow for renovations. The housing market was also at an all time high with properties selling within days of being advertised.

They then came across the Help to Buy government scheme which allows first time buyers to put down a 5% deposit from their own funds and the government then provide a 20% loan which is interest free for 5 years.  The scheme changed in April 2021 and a price cap of £224,400 was put in place in the North West but with newly built properties having an average price of £250,000 there was very little available in the Greater Manchester area.

His search became more desperate when he found out that he and his wife were expecting their first child, whilst being excited for their future there was now lots of pressure to find a family home.

Whilst scouring the Help to Buy website, they came across the Garden City Homes development ‘Scholars Field’, there were only a couple of properties left which didn’t really suit them but in an anxious rush to find somewhere before the baby was due, he expressed interest in one of the last available plots. After much deliberation on the property suitability and also having to consider his wife’s reduced income with her only receiving statutory maternity pay, they decided against purchasing this property.

One of the sales representatives at Garden City Homes advised them of the shared ownership scheme and that they had a development coming up nearby that might be more suitable for them. After learning more about shared ownership, they realised this was the perfect stepping stone for them to get onto the property ladder and get their perfect family home.

With the developments great transport links to Manchester, just a 3 minute walk from the Metrolink line and close to the M56, the location was ideal. Just from seeing the pictures online, they were sold on buying a property at ‘The Orchard’ and when he viewed the property, seeing its great layout, superb fitted kitchen and large gardens, he quickly made a reservation.

Once reserved they felt the process went very smoothly up to completion and was grateful for how Garden City Homes assisted him by dealing with queries quickly and effectively with kindness.

Having now lived in the property for 9 months, it was great to hear how much of a positive impact the move has had on this new family – “We’re very happy to not have to walk up nine flights of stairs to get to our flat when the lift breaks! We have so much more space, me and my wife can now both comfortably work from home whilst raising our little boy and we can have family over to visit and stay. It was amazing to have a property that we could move straight into and whilst there were some minor snags, most of the things that we reported were dealt with and fixed the next day! Shared ownership was definitely the best fit for us.”